LEYB ABRAM

LEYB ABRAM (1896-1966)

Born in Shavel (Šiauliai), Kovne district, Lithuania.  His father was a cobbler.  He studied in religion schools and in the city school.  In 1915 he was working as a bookkeeper in a candy factory.  He was a member of the Bund.  In 1917 he spent some time in a prison in Minsk.  After the October Revolution, he became one of the leaders of the Bundist Communists, and thereafter of the Jewish Communist Party and of the Communist League of Byelorussia and Lithuania.  He later became the leader of the Jewish section in Vitebsk and environs.  From 1920 to 1922, he was editor of the Vitebsk daily newspaper Der royter shtern (The red star), in which in 1922 he published a series of articles concerning the “history of the Communist League of Byelorussia.”  He later served on the editorial board of the newspaper Komunistisher fon (Communist banner) in Kiev, and he helped organize the “proletarian writers.”  In 1928 he was the editor of Odeser arbiter (Odessa worker).  More than anything else, he was eminent as the leader of the largest “Jewish colony,” Kalinindorf, and the editor of Kolvirt-emes (Collective farm truth).  He also published articles in the Moscow Emes (Truth) and in other newspapers and magazines.  In the turmoil of the purges of 1937-1938, he was sent to Tugulim, Sverdlovsky district, Siberia.  In 1948 on the road from Tugulim to Kovne and Shavel, Abram was arrested again and thereafter no one has had any news of him.  He was the brother of the writer William Abrams.  His books include: Zalbatsveyt (?), the history of May First together with a poem by M. Yudovin (Vitebsk, 1921), 18 pp.; Der mishpet ibern kheyder (The judgment over the cheder) (Vitebsk, 1922), 112 pp. (materials assembled, adapted, and edited by Abram together with Y. Khintshin and K. Kaplan).

Sources: A. Kirzhnits, Di yidishe prese in ratnfarband (The Yiddish press in the Soviet Union) (Minsk, 1928), pp. 65, 183, 316; Dos yidishe bukh in fssr, 1917-1921 (The Yiddish book in the USSR, 1917-1921) (Kiev, 1930), p. 126; A. Abtshuk, Etyudn un materyaln (Studies and materials) (Kharkov, 1934), pp. 92, 93, 177, 178; Sh. Agurski, Der yiddisher arbeter in der komunistisher bavegung (The Jewish worker in the Communist movement) (Minsk, 1925), pp. 65, 66, 70, 92, 183.