MOYSHE N. SHPRINBERG

MOYSHE N. SHPRINBERG[1] (February 22, 1888-June 8, 1981)

            He was a journalist, born in Zguritse (Zgurița), Bessarabia.  He Hispanicized his first name to Mauricio.  He was the brother of Pedro Shprinberg.  In 1903 he emigrated with his parents to Rosario, Argentina.  From 1913 he was living in Buenos Aires.  He was a leading figure in local general Zionism.  His journalistic work began and continued in Spanish.  In 1913 he published with his brother Shtrahlen (Beams), “Ilustrirter zhurnal far liṭeratur, ḳunst un visenshaft” (Illustrated journal for literature, art, and scholarship) in Buenos Aires (5 issues, main editor Pinye Kats).  In 1914 he contributed work (under the pen name Menesh) to Tog (Day) in Buenos Aires, and later until 1921 he served in the administration and editorial board of Di idishe tsaytung (The Jewish newspaper).  Shprinberg’s most important journalistic achievement was the publication of and editing for twelve years of the humor newspaper Penemer un nemen (Appearances, big and small) in Buenos Aires (1923-1935, initially appearing twice weekly, later weekly).  In 1935 he co-edited the daily newspaper Morgntsaytung (Morning newspaper) in Buenos Aires (which appeared for five years).  He worked there for one year, then switched to dealings in land (he built several small towns in the Córdoba mountains) and thereafter wrote sporadically for the Argentinian Yiddish press.  In book form: Erfolg, dramatisher eynkter (Success, a dramatic one-act play) (Buenos Aires, 1933), 23 pp.  He died in Buenos Aires.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Yankev-shimen lyakhovitski, zamlbukh tsu zayn biografye un kharakteristik (Yankev-Shimen Lyakhovitski, a collection toward his biography and character) (Buenos Aires, 1938), p. 18; Yoyvl-bukh, sakhakln fun 50 yohr idish leben in argentine, lekoved di idishe tsaytung tsu ihr 25 yohrigen yubileum (Jubilee volume, a summing up of fifty years of Jewish life in Argentina, in honor of Di yidishe tsaytung on its twenty-fifth-year jubilee) (Buenos Aires, 1940), p. 367; Yoysef Mendelson, in Idishe tsaytung (Buenos Aires) (January 5, 1965); Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Yoysef Horn

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[1] Zalmen Reyzen erroneously gives his surname as “Shpringberg.”