ARN BEN-TSIEN SHURIN

ARN BEN-TSIEN SHURIN (October 3, 1913-2012)

            He was born in Riteve (Rietavas), Lithuania.  He attended Lithuanian yeshivas.  In 1936 he came to the land of Israel and there received ordination into the rabbinate in 1939.  From 1940 he was living in New York.  He worked as a rabbi in Brooklyn and from 1966 an instructor in Tanakh and Mishnah in City College of New York.  From 1944 he was a regular contributor to Forverts (Forward), in which he wrote twice weekly articles on events in the Jewish religious world, well-known Torah personalities, and political and spiritual matters in Israel and the United States—all from an Orthodox point of view.  He also wrote for: Idishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) in Buenos Aires, Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal; Unzer veg (Our way) in Paris; and Di idishe vokh (The Jewish week) in New York; among other serials.  In book form, he published: Keshet giborim (Bows of the mighty), a collection of essays on well-known rabbis (Jerusalem: Mosad Harav Kuk, 1964), 4 vols.; Ben yehude artsot haberit (Among the Jews of the United States) (Jerusalem: Mosad Harav Kuk, 1981), 285 pp.  He died in Brooklyn.

Sources: Getzel Kressel, Leksikon hasifrut haivrit (Handbook of Hebrew literature), vol. 2 (Merḥavya, 1967); David Tidhar, Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 10 (Tel Aviv, 1959).

Ruvn Goldberg

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 521.]