TSVI KOLITS (ZVI KOLITZ)

TSVI KOLITS (ZVI KOLITZ) (b. December 14, 1916)

            He was born in Vishey (Veisiejai), Lithuania.  He studied in yeshivas and later at the University of Florence in Italy.  He was a member of the world executive of the Zionist Revisionists.  At the start of WWII, he emigrated from Italy to the land of Israel, later proceeding to New York.  From 1984 he was a lecturer on Tanakh at Yeshiva University in New York.  He debuted in print in the daily newspaper Idishe shtime (Jewish voice), later publishing in: Folksblat (People’s newspaper), Moment (Moment), Tog-morgn-zhurnal (Day-morning journal) in New York; and in Haarets (The land), Haboker (This morning), and Hamashkif (The observer).  More recently, he was a regular contributor to Algemeyne zhurnal (General journal) in New York.  He wrote stories and thoughtful essays, and also in English and Hebrew.  His books include: Im kidon balev (With a bayonet in the heart) (Jerusalem, 1942), 100 pp.; The Tiger beneath the Skin (New York, 1947), 172 pp.; Survival for What? (New York, 1969), 219 pp.; The Teacher: An Existential Approach to the Bible (New York, 1982), 218 pp.  He produced the films: Bergl 24 entfert nit (Hill 24 doesn’t answer), which received an award; and The Deputy.  His Yosl rakover redt tsu got (Yosl Rakover speaks to God) was incorporated into the Conservative High Holiday prayer book.

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 472.