KHAYIM KUSHELEVITSH

KHAYIM KUSHELEVITSH (August 8, 1895-June 8, 1981)

            He was born in Slabodka, Lithuania.  His father was a rabbi in Ratsk (Raszki), Semyatitsh (Siemiatycze), and Tiktin (Tykocin).  In his youth he changed his name from Zaks to Kushelevits.  He attended religious primary school and yeshivas.  Over the years 1924-1927, he lived in the land of Israel, before settling in Johannesburg, South Africa.  His first literary work was a one-act play entitled Mentshn un gayster (People and ghosts), performed in 1922 in Shavel (Šiauliai), Lithuania.  In 1965 he began writing stories which describe life in the old country.  From time to time, he also wrote about other themes, frequently biblical.  He published in Dorem-afrike (South Africa) and Afrikaner idishe tsaytung (African Jewish newspaper).  In book form: S’iz geven a mol, dertseylungen un zikhroynes (There was once, stories and memoirs) (Johannesburg, 1970), 229 pp., under the name Khayim Saks.  He died in Johannesburg.

Dovid Volpe

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 482.]