DOVID BOMATS

DOVID BOMATS (1899-1942)

Born in Mlave (Mława), Poland, into a Hassidic family.  He studied in religious schools.  In the early 1920s, he came to Lodz, where he became one of the founders of “Poale-Emune Yisrael” [a religious Zionist organization].  Until WWII, he worked as an employee for the Jewish community of Lodz.  In the Lodz ghetto, he was one of an active underground leader, and he devoted himself especially to spreading transcribed pages of the radio news.  He was a member of the religious writers group in the ghetto, which in its own way undertook cultural work.  He began writing in the anthology Friling (Spring) (Lodz, 1922), with an article about religious Jewish workers.  He later published in Yidishe arbayter-shtime (Voice of Jewish laborers), 1927-1934, and in the magazine Beys-yankev (House of Jacob).  He was also among the main contributors to the weekly Dos lebn (Life), 1929-1932.  He died of hunger and tuberculosis in the Lodz ghetto.

Source: Kh. L. Fuks, “Dos yidishe literaturishe lodzh” (Jewish literary Lodz), Fun geentn over 3 (New York, 1956).