SHIYE KAMINSKI (JACOB KAMINSKY)

SHIYE KAMINSKI (JACOB KAMINSKY) (August 15, 1884-November 30, 1958)

            He was born in Malin (Malyn), Kiev Province.  He came to the United States in 1906.  There he contributed to establishing the first secular Jewish schools.  He was one of the founders and leaders of the Sholem-Aleichem schools, Camp Boiberik, the Matones publishing house, and Kinder zhurnal (Children’s magazine).  Over the last twenty years of his life, he worked with the Workmen’s Circle and edited Kinder tsaytung (Children’s newspaper).  In book form: Mayn a”b (My alphabet) (New York: Shvalbn, 1927), second edition (1945), reprinted (Stuttgart, 1948); A mayse fun dray tsigelakh vayse (A tale of three little white goats) (New York, 1927), 16 pp.; Geyt a hindele keyn bronzvil (A doe goes to Brownsville) (New York, 1937), 14 pp.; Ikh lern zikh yidish (I’m studying Yiddish) (New York: Arbeter-ring, 1938), 112 pp., fourth edition (New York, 1945); In der heym un in shul (At home and at school) (New York, 1951), 128 pp.; Lola, mayses fun a meydele vos iz geven andersh (Lola, stories of a little girl who was different) (New York: Arbeter-ring, 1951), 48 pp.  He edited Fertsik yor arbeter-ring, a geshikhte in bilder (Forty years of the Workmen’s Circle, a history in pictures) (New York: Workmen’s Circle, 1940), 80 pp.  He died in New York.

Sources: Y. Mlotek, in Kultur un dertsiung (New York) (December 1958); L. Lehrer, in Kinder zhurnal (New York) (January 1959); Y. Yeshurin, in Arbeter ring boyer un tuer (Builders and leaders of the Workmen’s Circle) (New York, 1962); Y. Zilberberg-Kholeva, Mentsh un folk (Man and people) (Tel Aviv, 1967), pp. 439-42; American Jewish Yearbook (1959).

Yekhezkl Lifshits