LEYZER SHERMAN

LEYZER SHERMAN (1886-March 7, 1946)

            He was born in Krivoozere (Krivoye Ozera), Podolia.  He emigrated to the United States in 1908. He went with the Jewish Legion to the land of Israel and in 1929 returned to America.  He lived for several years in Newark, later in Philadelphia where he worked as a teacher in Hebrew-Yiddish schools.  He died in an automobile catastrophe in Philadelphia.  He was active with left Labor Zionists.

            Over the years 1925-1928, the Labor Zionists in Israel brought out one-off publications, because the British authorities would not allow periodicals.  Sherman’s name figured as the responsible editor of fifteen such Yiddish and fourteen Hebrew collections, which appeared in Jaffa-Tel Aviv (one in Haifa), and many of them Sherman actually edited: Val-blat (Election news) (1925); Unzer gedank (Our idea) (1926); Unzer shtime (Our voice) (1926); Unzer arbeter shtime (Voice of our labor) (1926); Di proletarishe shtime (The proletarian voice) (1926); Di arbeter froy (The worker’s wife) (1926); Di velt (The world) (1926); Naye arbeter velt (New labor news) (1926); Unzer veg (Our way) 1927); Arbeter veg (Labor’s way) (1927); Der hamer (The hammer) (1927); Arbeter firer (Labor’s leader) (1928); Arbeter kemfer (Labor struggle) (1928); Mai (May) (1928); Dos profesyonele lebn (The trade union life) (Haifa, 1928).  In Hebrew he published: Regel hapoel (The base of labor); Davar hapoel (The word of labor), and Hapatish (The hammer), among others.

            In book form: Der mensh byalik, zikhroynes un ayndrukn vegn der likhtiker perzenlikhkeyt funem groysn natsyonaln dikhter kh. n. byalik (Bialik the man, memoirs and impressions of the illustrious personality of the great national poet, Ḥ. N. Bialik) (Philadelphia: Ber-Kay Press, 1936), 173 pp.; Shefer un boyer, ekhod-hoom a. d. gordon (Creator and builder, Aḥad-Haam [and] A. D. Gordon) (Philadelphia: Alt-nay, 1941), 192 pp.; Hershele ostropoler (Hershele Ostropoler) (Tel Aviv, 1931), 159 pp.

Sources: Zalman Pevzner, Shivim shana leitonut hayisraelit beerets yisroel (Seventy years of Israeli journalism in the land of Israel) (Tel Aviv, 1931/1932); Talush (Iser Muselevitsh), Derinerungen un fartsekhenungen (Memoirs and jottings) (Miami Beach, 1953), pp. 130-34; Yankev Rodak, Kunst un kinstler, ophandlungen iber undzere klasiker un batrakhtungen vegn dem etsem fun literatur oykh miniatur kriṭikn iber bikher un zayere shrayber (Art and artists, essays on our classic writers and considerations of literature itself, also miniature criticism of books and their authors) (New York, 1955), p. 170; Yaakov Tsuzmer, Beikve hador (In the footprints of a generation) (New York, 1957), see index; Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Ruvn Goldberg