KHAYIM SHURER

KHAYIM SHURER (May 1, 1895-February 13, 1968)

            He was a journalist, born in Obodevke (Obodivka), Podolia.  He studied both Jewish and general subject matter in Kishinev.  In 1913 he settled in the land of Israel.  He was a leader among the general Zionists and in Mapai (Workers’ Party of the Land of Israel) bodies.  He wrote articles and feature pieces primarily in Hebrew.  From 1936 he served on the editorial board of Davar (Word), and over the years 1953-1960 he was editor-in-chief.  He published numerous books in Hebrew.  He also wrote several plays.  He published a few items in Yiddish, such as in: Erd un arbet (Land and labor) (Kishinev, 1920-1921); Folk un land (People and land) (Lodz, 1931-1933); Dos naye vort (The new word) (Warsaw, May 1935-November 1937), for which he was editor for a short time; Kiem (Existence) (Paris); and other newspapers (mostly republications).  Shurer’s book Arbaim yom biverit hamoatsot (Forty days in the Soviet Union) (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1954/1955), 198 pp., was translated and published in installments in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (Day-morning journal).  He penned the pamphlets in Yiddish: Der arlazarov mord (The murder of [Chaim] Arlosoroff) (Warsaw: F. Taubman, 1934), 47 pp.; Revizyonizm, a sakone farn folk (Revisionism, a danger to the people) (Tel Aviv, 1938), 64 pp.; Shray, mayn lib folk, unzer khov tsu di idn in ratnfarband (Scream out, my beloved people, our duty to the Jews in the Soviet Union) (Tel Aviv, 1955), 53 pp.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Source: Getzel Kressel, Leksikon hasifrut haivrit (Handbook of Hebrew literature), vol. 2 (Merḥavya, 1967).

Berl Cohen