FROYM SHRAYER

FROYM SHRAYER (b. July 8, 1911)

            He was born in Tolmitsh (Tlumach), Galicia, into a well-to-do, rabbinical family.  He received both a traditional and a general education.  In 1928 he joined the left Labor Zionists and remained affiliated with them his entire life.  From 1930 he was living in Warsaw where he graduated from a school for folk art.  He spent WWII in the Soviet Union.  After the war he was active among refugees in Germany.  From 1950 he was living in Tel Aviv.  He wrote criticism, journalism, and mainly on theater and art.  He began publishing in the 1930s in Arbeter-tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper) and Fraye yugnt (Free youth).  He contributed as well to: newspapers of the survivors in Germany; New York’s Proletarisher gedank (Proletarian idea) and Unzer veg (Our way); Nayvelt (New world) in Munich; Folksblat (People’s newspaper), Di goldene keyt (The golden chain), and Bay zikh (On one’s own) in Tel Aviv; and Unzer vort (Our word) in Paris; among other serials.  He edited Nayvelt in Munich (1946-1949) and Der morgn (The morning) in Munich (1949); and he co-edited Hamshekh (Continuation) in Munich and Yizker-bukh tlumich-tolmitsh (Remembrance volume for Tlumach) (Tel Aviv, 1976).  His work also appeared in: Sefer zerubavel ([Yankev] Zerubavel volume) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1961); and Almanakh fun yidishe shrayber in yisroel (Almanac of Yiddish writers in Israel) (Tel Aviv, 1962).

            In book form: Irena aykhler, monografye (Irena Eichler, a monograph) (Warsaw, 1939), 63 pp.; Problemen fun kinstlerishn shafn (Problems of artistic creativity) (Munich: Nayvelt, 1948), 91 pp.; Bay heymishe shveln, ayndrukn, eseyen, profiln (At familiar thresholds, impressions, essays, profiles) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1976), 172 pp.; Bleter fun mayn album (Pictures from my album) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1978), 106 pp., translated into Hebrew by Yosef Aḥai as Ale aviv (Spring leaves) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1979), 100 pp.; Friling-bleter (Spring leaves) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1981), 95 pp.; Estetishe vertn (Aesthetic values) (Tel Aviv: Leivick Publ., 1985), 103 pp.  The two books, Neo-realizm in kunst (Neo-realism in art) and Stefan yaratsh (Stefan Yaratsh), allegedly published in 1937 in Warsaw and Lemberg, were never published.  In Hebrew: Omanut veteatron (Art and theater) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1958), 118 pp., an expanded translation of his Problemen fun kinstlerishn shafn; and Deyokan umasekha (Portrait and mask) (Tel Aviv, 1965), 160 pp., translated from a Yiddish manuscript.  Until 1945 he used the surnames Shrayer-Krigel and Ayzner.

Ruvn Goldberg

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 536.]