KHAYIM SHOYKHET

KHAYIM SHOYKHET (February 23, 1908-March 22, 1982)

            He was born in Vilna, and in 1914 he moved with his family to Gelvan (Gelvonai), Lithuania.  In 1926 he graduated from the Jewish high school in Vilkomir (Ukmergė), Lithuania, and in 1932 from the History Department of Kovno University.  Over the years 1931-1939, he worked as a teacher in Yiddish schools in Lithuania.  From 1954 he was a teacher in the Jewish school in Vilna and after its closure in Lithuanian and Russian educational institutions.  In 1972 he made aliya to Israel and settled in Beersheba.  He began writing reportage pieces and theater reviews in 1926 for a variety of Yiddish publications in Lithuania, and over the years 1930-1941 primarily for the Kovno daily Folksblat (People’s news).  He wrote travel impressions and stagings for Vilna’s Grininke beymelekh (Little green trees) and Der khaver (The friend).  In his last years he published literary critical articles in: Di goldene keyt (The golden chain) and Yisroel-shtime (Voice of Israel) in Tel Aviv; Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture) in New York; and Dorem-afrike (South Africa) in Johannesburg.  He helped to edit Di ber-sheve shtime (The voice of Beersheba).  His pen names: Sheynin and Litvak.  He died in Beersheba.

Source: D. Roytnberg, in Dorem-afrike (Johannesburg) (July-September 1982).

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 519-20.