LEYB KUPERSHTEYN

LEYB KUPERSHTEYN (b. August 25, 1905)

            He was born in Markulesht (Mărculeşti), Bessarabia.  He attended a “cheder metukan” (improved religious elementary school) and a Hebrew high school.  He went on to study in Belgium and France.  He worked as a teacher in his city and from 1933 he was living in Belz.  From 1940 he was in the land of Israel.  Kupershteyn’s main work was in Hebrew—Megilat struma (The story of the Strumah) (Tel Aviv, 1941/1942), 128 pp.; Goral yehude romaniya (The fate of Romanian Jewry) (Tel Aviv, 1943/1944), 107 pp.; and Bisheliḥut hatenua haivrit (On behalf of the movement for Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1965), 93 pp.; among other works.  From 1922 he was publishing reportage pieces as well as journalistic and literary critical articles in: the daily Unzer tsayt (Our time), Tsayt-fragn (Issue of the day), and Dos kooperative vort (The cooperative word)—in Kishinev; Tshernovitser bleter (Czernowitz pages); and Oyfgang (Arise) in Sighet.  He edited and published the weekly newspaper Dos beltser vort (The Belz word).  In Israel he wrote from time to time for Di goldene keyt (The golden chain) and Letste nayes (Latest news) in Tel Aviv.  He wrote a monograph on Yankev Fikhman—in his anthology Asif, mivhar yetsirato shel yaaḳov fikhman beshira uveproza (Harvest, selected work of Yaakov Fikhman in poetry and prose) (Tel Aviv: Masada, 1958/1959); and a work on Froym Oyerbakh—in Ir levana, Vayse shtot (White city) (Tel Aviv, 1960), 134 pp.

Ruvn Goldberg

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