YITSKHOK ALTSHULER

YITSKHOK ALTSHULER (b. October 5, 1888)

Born in Malatitshi, Byelorussia.  His father was a rabbi.  He studied in yeshivas and worked as a ritual slaughterer in Ostrogozhsk (Voronezh region).  In 1912 he made his way to Argentina where he became a Yiddish and Hebrew teacher in the YIKO (Jewish Cultural Organization) schools, later becoming director of the Jewish elementary school.  He completed the musical conservatory there and served for over twenty years as a cantor.  He was one of the founders of Vaad Hachinuch ([Orthodox] board of education) for the Jewish community of Buenos Aires.  In 1914 he published the first story in Di yidishe tsaytung (The Jewish newspaper) in Buenos Aires.  He also published treatises on pedagogical topics.  He translated A. I. Kuprin’s Shulamis (Shulamit); Kh. N. Bialik’s Der kurtser fraytog (The short Friday, Yom shishi hakatsar); Jaroslav Hašek, Der braver soldat shvayk (The good solder Schweik, Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka); and various works by the Hebrew writers: Asher Barash, Yaakov Cohen, and Sh. Y. Agnon.  He also published in the journal Penemer un penemlekh (Faces), Di yidishe velt (The Jewish world), Rozaryer vokhnblat (Rosario’s weekly), and in pedagogical journals, such as Di tribune (The tribune).  Among his books: Dertseylungen fun yidishn lebn in argentine (Stories of Jewish life in Argentina) (Buenos Aires: Bikher fun yedn, 1919).  He was on the editorial board of the Hebrew monthly Habima haivrit (The Jewish platform) and contributed to the monthly Atidenu (Our future).  He used the pseudonym: Avrom (Avraham) Sinitskin.

Source: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1.