SHLOYME SHEYNBERG (December 15, 1891-September 26, 1942)
A
translator, poet, and author of stories, he was born in Pilev (Puławy),
Poland. He attended religious elementary
school until age twelve, spent several years in a small Hassidic synagogue, and
then became a typesetter and took up self-education. He traveled around as a teacher and held a
variety of positions. He lived for many
years in Warsaw. With Mark Rakovski, he
was the literary manager and editor of Sh. Yatshkovski’s publishing house
(founded in 1924). In 1928 he
established his own press, “Koykhes” (Strengths). He fled during WWII to Soviet Russia and died
there. He composed poetry, stories, and
literary articles, though mostly translations from world literature. He began his literary activities in 1917 with
poems in the weekly newspaper Dos folk
(The people)—though already in 1910 he placed several poems in the collection Yugend (Youth) in Warsaw. He was a regular contributor to Lubliner togblat (Lublin daily
newspaper), in which he placed a lengthy cycle of “lyrical songs” and numerous
stories (one story entitled “Durkh noyt un layd” [Through need and suffering]
carried through an entire month). He
later wrote for Yitskhok-Meyer Vaysenberg’s Yudishe
zamelbikher (Yiddish collections) and contributed work to: Lebens-fragen (Life issues), Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper), Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Ilustrirte vokh (Illustrated week), and
Argentina’s Far groys un kleyn (From
big and small). He published the journal
Velt-literatur (World literature) in
Warsaw (2 issues, 1925) and Literarishe
yontef bleter (Literary holiday sheets) in Warsaw (Nisan [= March] 1926). Among his translations: Edmondo De Amicis, Dos harts (The heart [original: Cuore]) (Warsaw: Sh. Yatshkovski, 1923),
6 vols.; Leo Tolstoy, Milkhome un sholem
(War and peace [original: Voina i mir])
(Warsaw: Ch. Bzhoza, 1927), 4 vols.; Tolstoy, Anna karenina, roman (Anna
Karenina) (Vilna: B. Kletskin, 1929), 2 vols.; Fedor Gladkov, Naye erd (New earth [original: Novaia zemlia]) (Warsaw, 1934-1935), 3
vols., 479 pp.; André Malraux, Der goyrl
fun mentsh (Man’s fate [original: La
Condition humaine (The human condition)] (Warsaw, 1935), 478 pp.; Charles
Dickens, Oliver tvist, dos tragishe leben
fun a yosem (Oliver Twist, the tragic life of an orphan) (Warsaw: M.
Goldfarb, 1926-1927), 2 vols.; Boris Pilniak, Di volge falt arayn in kaspishn yam (The Volga flows into the
Caspian Sea [original: Volga
vpadaet v Kaspiiskoe more]) (Warsaw, 1935), 2 vols., 319 pp. He died in Sengiley, Russia.[1]
Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 1 (Montreal, 1945); Zusman
Segalovitsh, Tlomatske 13, fun farbrentn nekhtn (13 Tłomackie
St., of scorched yesterdays) (Buenos Aires, 1946), p. 97; Yoysef Papyernikov, Heymishe un noente, demonungen (Familiar
and close at hand, remembrances) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1958), pp. 263-65; Pulaver yizker-bukh (Remembrance volume
for Puławy)
(New York, 1964), p. 107; Shiye Tenenboym, Geshtaltn baym shrayb-tish, zikhroynes vegn shrayber un moler in
nyu-york, 1938-1968 (Figures by the desk, memoirs of writers and painters
in New York, 1938-1968) (New York: CYCO, 1969), pp. 385-94; Sh. L. Shnayderman,
Ven di vaysl hot geredt yidish (When
the Vistula spoke Yiddish) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1970), pp. 111-12; Yeshurin
archive, YIVO (New York).
Berl Cohen
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