YOYSEF SHPRINTSAK

YOYSEF SHPRINTSAK (February 25, 1885-January 28, 1959)

            He was born in Moscow.  Around 1891 he moved with his parents to Kishinev and later to Warsaw.  From 1908 he was living in the land of Israel.  From 1904 he was active in Zionist Youth in Grodno, Kishinev, and Warsaw, one of the leading personalities in the Zionist labor movement there and later in the state of Israel.  He wrote mostly in Hebrew.  In Yiddish, he wrote articles for: Dos yudishe folk (The Jewish people) in Vilna, Der yud (The Jew), and Unzer leben (Our life) in Warsaw; Di goldene keyt (The golden chain) in Tel Aviv; and elsewhere.  In pamphlet form: Unzer zorg farn goles, unzer flikht far der tsienistisher organizatsye (Our worry for the diaspora, our duty for the Zionist Organization) (Tel Aviv, 1938/1939), 32 pp.  Some of Shprintsak’s essays, translated by Yisroel Ritov from Hebrew, were published under the title In vort un shrift (In word and in writing) (Buenos Aires: Kiem, 1955), 399 pp.  He died in Jerusalem.

Sources: Getzel Kressel, Leksikon hasifrut haivrit (Handbook of Hebrew literature), vol. 2 (Merḥavya, 1967); Moyshe Gross-Tsimerman, Yidn tsvishn yidn (Jews among Jews) (Buenos Aires: Kiem, 1956), pp. 169-72; Pinkhes Shteynvaks, Tsienistn (Zionists), vol. 1 (Buenos Aires: Kiem, 1960), pp. 42-48; Di goldene keyt (Tel Aviv) 33 (1969), numerous articles; Yitskhok Korn, Yidn afn sheydveg (Jews at the crossroad) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1978), pp. 375-87.

Ruvn Goldberg