SH. K. SHNEYFAL

SH. K. SHNEYFAL (b. 1884)

            He was a journalist, born Sh. Kozakevitsh in Novozybkov, Russia.  He received a traditional education and also attended a senior high school.  He lived in Odessa and spent five or six years in Germany and the United States, in Vilna, Berdichev, and St. Petersburg.  At the time of the Kerensky government, he worked on the Committee to Organize the All-Russian Jewish Conference.  He was the literary director of the Yiddish revue theater “Bezker” (Bezem un ker [Broom and sweeping]) in Kiev, later of the exemplary dramatic circle for Ukraine.  In 1903 he began writing sketches in Hebrew, but he quickly switched to Yiddish.  He published hundreds of articles (on politics, theater, and literature), features, semi-fictional sketches, and notices in various Yiddish serial publications throughout the world: Tsukunft (Future), for which he was vice-editor for two years; Dovid Pinski’s weekly Der arbayter (The laborer), articles on the backwardness of Yiddish theater and literature; Chaim Zhitlovsky’s Dos naye leben (The new life); Yankev Milkh’s Di naye velt (The new world); Tsayt-gayst (Spirit of the times); Kundes (Prankster); Varhayt (Truth), as its correspondent in 1909 he traveled through Lithuania, Poland, and Russia; Fraynd (Friend), a series of articles, among other items, on Dovid Pinski, Avrom Lyesin, Morris Vintshevsky, and others; the St. Petersburg collection In unzere teg (In our days), Dos leben (The life), Der veg (The way) and Dos yudishe leben (The Jewish life)—all 1916; the weeklies Folksblat (People’s newspaper) and Vokhnblat (Weekly newspaper); the Soviet Komfon (Communist banner), Shtern (Star) in Kharkov, Oktyabr (October) in Minsk, Yunge gvardye (Young guard), Zay greyt (Be ready!), Sovetishe literatur (Soviet literature) 10 (1940), memoirs concerning Perets, and other serials.  He edited Der tog (The day) in Vilna and Folksshtime (Voice of the people) in Berdichev (at Perets’s recommendation).  His pamphlets include: Vegn yudishen [alruslendishen] tsuzamenfor (On the [All-Russian] Jewish Conference) (Petrograd, 1917), 8 pp.; Moris vintshevski (Morris Vinchevsky) (Kiev: Kultur-lige).  He wrote a comedy in three acts: Nekhtige teg (Past days), which was staged many times.  Pen names include: Sh. K. Sh., Shnel, Kozak Hagodl, Lvovitsh, Snyegopadski, and Reynin.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Avrom-Dovid Shub, in Forverts (March 28, 1965), in which he erroneously confuses Sheynfel with H. Kozakevitsh; Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Berl Cohen