TSVI-HERSH DASHEVSKI

TSVI-HERSH DASHEVSKI (1888-September 18, 1926)

            He was born in Ekaterinoslav, Ukraine.  Early in life he demonstrated an inclination for the stage, and even before his bar mitzvah he joined a traveling troupe of actors who played where they were invited.  He later acted with the Yiddish theater in Odessa and Romania.  In the early 1920s he settled in Warsaw, where he mainly was engaged with translating plays and dramatizing them for the Yiddish theater.  In 1923 the troupe from the “Central” theater in Warsaw staged Leonid Andreyev’s Di zibn gehangene (The seven who were hanged [original: Rasskaz o semi poveshennykh]), translated and dramatized for the stage by Dashevski (together with Sh. Krants) (Vilna, 1924); in 1924 the same troupe performed his translation and staging of Victor Hugo’s Der giber in keytn (The strong man in chains [original: Les Misérables) (Vilna, 1926).  He also staged Sholem-Aleykhem’s Blondzhnde shtern (Wandering stars) and translated Nikolai Yevreinov’s Der iker (The chief thing [original: Samoye glavnoye]) (Vilna, 1925), 100 pp.  He died in Vilna.

Sources: Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 1; M. Vaykhert, Teater un drame (Theater and drama), vol. 2 (Vilna, 1926), see index; obituary notices in the Yiddish press.

YEHUDE-LEYB DASHEVSKI (YALBIZ, LOUIS DASHEVSKY)

YEHUDE-LEYB DASHEVSKI (YALBIZ, LOUIS DASHEVSKY) (May 1, 1890-June 16, 1974)

            He was born in Maryevka, Kherson region.  He worked as a carpenter.  In 1906 he published his first piece, a story, in a Russian Zionist magazine, Zhizn’ yuga (Life in the South).  In 1906 he lived for a time in Lemberg.  In 1907 he emigrated to Argentina.  Until 1910 he lived in the colony of Mozesville, and that year he moved to the United States.  His first Yiddish publication appeared in 1923.  He published in Groyse kundes (Great prankster), Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor), Amerikaner (American), Yidisher arbeter (Jewish laborer), and Shikager kuryer (Chicago courier), among others.  From time to time, he published stories, poems, and translations in various serials.  He lived for several years in Milwaukee.  Using the pen name Yalbiz, he wrote up the news in rhyme.  He was living in New York where he died.

ZELIG DORFMAN

ZELIG DORFMAN (April 12, 1905-1993)

            He was born in Zaromb (Zaręby Kościelne), Poland.  He studied in religious elementary school until age ten, later in the yeshiva of Ostrove (Ostrów).  In 1921 he emigrated to the United States.  In 1927 he began to publish poems in Gerekhtikeyt (Justice).  Together with Moyshe Shtarkman and Henekh Akerman, he edited the anthology Refleksn (Reflexes) (New York, April 1932), 16 pp.  In January 1940 he started bringing out a small, four-page journal, published in petit size, as designed by him.  He also published in: Tsuzamen (Together), Frayhayt (Freedom), Untervegs (Pathways), Havaner lebn (Havana life), Hamer (Hammer), Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor), Oyfkum (Arise), Zayn (To be), Tsukunft (Future), and Di feder (The pen), among others.  Among his books: Zing, zinger (Sing, singer) (New York, 1938), 106 pp.; Amol iz geven a meylekh (There once was a king) (New York, 1948), 94 pp.; Likht afn dorn (Light on the thorn) (New York, 1960), 76 pp.  He was one of the lyrical poets who sprung up in American Yiddish literature in the decade following WWI.  Especially innovative were his poems about the war and his mother.  His lyrical poems were the beginning of a biblical style.

Sources: Hemshekh-antologye (Hemshekh anthology) (New York, 1945), p. 314; Sh. Slutski, Avrom reyzen biblyografye (Avrom Reyzen’s bibliography) (New York, 1956), nos. 4969, 5342.

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 190.]

MOYSHE DORNBUSH

MOYSHE DORNBUSH (April 18, 1852-August 3, 1914)

            He was born in Przemyśl, Galicia.  He lived for many years in Vienna where he co-edited and also single-handedly edited periodicals in Yiddish and Judeo-German (German spelled in the Jewish alphabet).  He edited the biweekly illustrated humorous newspaper: Viner yidisher kuryer (Vienna Jewish courier) in Vienna (1876).  He was co-editor of Viner izraelit (Vienna Israelite), edited by Wilhelm Weiss, and editor of: Nayer viner izraelit (New Vienna Israelite); Yidishe veltblat (Jewish world newspaper) in Pressburg; Algemeyne yidishe tsaytung (General Jewish newspaper) in Budapest (1887); Yidishes folksblat (Jewish people’s newspaper) in Budapest (five times weekly, later a daily newspaper); Yidishes tageblat (Jewish daily newspaper); Hamazkir (The scribe), together with Ozyas Geyer (1891); Yidishes tageblat in Budapest (1899).  Using the pseudonym “Oskar Zakharyazon,” he translated into German Moshe Chaim Luzzato’s Mesilat yesharim (Path of the righteous); and he published a story entitled Yude blaybt yude, ertseylung (A Jew remains a Jew, a story) (Budapest, 1893), 184 pp.  He also wrote under the name “Mar Dror.”

Sources: Ts. Shpirn, in Tsukunft (New York) (May 1923), pp. 309-12; Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; G. Bader, Medina veḥakhameha (The state and its sages) (New York, 1934), see index; Y. Y. Grinvald, Toyzent yor yidish lebn in ungarn (One thousand years of Jewish life in Hungary) (New York, 1945), p. 279.

YEHUDE DARDAK

YEHUDE DARDAK (b. 1898)

            He was born in Ilye (Ilya), near Vileyka, Vilna region, where his father, R. Dardak, was rabbi.  Over the year 1911-1914, he studied in the Mirer Yeshiva.  He spent two years in Minsk during WWI.  He worked as a teacher and organized Hebrew public schools in a series of smaller and larger towns.  When the Polish military invaded Ilye, he was arrested and dragged off to Lemberg.  Four months later he was released.  He had no wish to remain under Polish rule, so in 1921 moved to Soviet Minsk.  There he joined the Red Army.  He subsequently graduated from university and helped build Soviet Yiddish schools.  He was the first author of a systematic course for pedagogues in Yiddish.  Among his books and more important essays: “Di tsveyte konferents fun di tuers fun di yidishe kinder-heyzer in minsk” (The second conference of leaders of the Yiddish houses in Minsk), Af di vegn tsu der nayer shul (En route to the new school) 2 (Minsk, 1924), pp. 78-80; Gezelshaftkentenish, arbet bukh farn V lernyor, ershter teyl (Social knowledge, a workbook for the fifth school year, part 1), together with Y. Rubin, L. Holmshtok, H. Aleksandrov, and others (Minsk, 1928), 108 pp.; Pedagogik far studentn fun pedagogishe tekhnikums un lerers fun 1tn ḳontsenter (Pedagogy, for students in pedagogical technicums and teachers in the first school year) (Minsk, 1931), 407 pp.

Sources: Y. Rodak, in Di yidishe shprakh (Kiev) (July-October 1928), pp. 43-53; A. Golomb, in Yivo-bleter (Vilna) 3 (1932), pp. 260-64.

MOYSHE DARGUZHANSKI

MOYSHE DARGUZHANSKI (1867-1938)

            He was born in Mitave (Mitava), Latvia, into a well-to-do family.  He received both a Jewish and a general education.  He graduated from a Russian high school.  He studied music in Germany and Italy.  In 1908 he moved to Lodz and became director of the “German Synagogue,” while at the same time serving as singing teacher in the Russian Jewish public school.  He was the composer of a number of liturgical compositions.  For many years he worked as music reviewer for the Lodz Yiddish press.  He was a regular contributor to Nayes folks blat (New people’s newspaper) in Lodz, in which in addition to reviews and notices of concerts he also published stories concerning famous composers and cantors.  He also contributed to Di shul- un khazonim-velt (The synagogue and cantorial world) in Warsaw (1934-1938) and Teater shpigl (Theatrical mirror), among others.  He published also under the pen names: D. Ski, Yaz, and others.  He died in Lodz.

Sources: F. Milakovski, in Di shul- un khazonim-velt (Warsaw) (October 1937); Kh. L. Fuks, in Fun noentn over 3 (New York, 1957).

YOYSEF DOKTOROVITSH

YOYSEF DOKTOROVITSH (b. 1874)

            He was born in Smorgon (Smarhon’), Lithuania, son of R. Yankev Doktorovitsh.  He studied in a number of yeshivas.  From 1904 he was living in the United States, where he was a teacher in yeshivas.  He erected a model of the Second Temple—entitled “Takhnit bet-hamigdash” (Plan of the Second Temple)—which he exhibited in Pittsburg, Baltimore, and New York.  The display later burned down, and he went on to build a model of the First Temple.  He was the author of a religious text, Midot habatim al masekhet midot (The measurements of the Temples, on [Talmudic] tractate Midot), which describes the appearance of the Temple, both the first and the second; it was printed together with his work in Yiddish, Der beysamigdesh (The Temple), a precise description of the Temple with all its gates and rooms.  The two books together: (Brooklyn, New York, 1936), 115 pp.

Source: Ben-Tsiyon Ayzenshadt, Dorot haaḥaronim (Generation of the later ones), vol. 2 (New York, 1913-1914), pp. 52-53.