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.
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