SHAUL (SAUL) BOROVOY

SHAUL (SAUL) BOROVOY (1903-1989)

     He was a Soviet scholar of Jewish history and literature, who lived in Odessa.  He wrote books and articles in scholarly periodicals—in Russian, Ukrainian, Yiddish, and Hebrew.  He worked as a research student in the Odessa Central Scientific Library in 1929.  Later, he was a professor in a senior high school.  In 1950 his works were published in Istoricheskie zapiski (Historical transactions), though his subsequent fate remains little known.  Among his books: Mendele tsu der geshikhte fun yidishn bukh oyf Ukraine (Mendele in the history of the Yiddish book in Ukraine) (Kiev, 1925-1926), 15 pp. (separate publication from his work in Ukrainian, immediately following); “Sketches on the history of the Hebrew religious text in Ukraine,” Bibliolohichni visti (Bibliological news) 1-2 (1925) and 1-2 (1926); Yevreiskaya zemledel’skaya kolonizatsiya v staroi rossii (History of the Jewish colonization in old Russia) (Moscow, 1928), 200 pp.; Di visnshaftlekhe biblyotek in itstike badingungen (The scholarly library under present conditions) (Kiev, 1930), 67 pp. (supplement to the journal, Bibliolohichni visti 1-2 [1930], organ of the Bibliological Institute of Ukraine); Geshikhte fun der yidisher kultur in Ukraine (History of Jewish culture in Ukraine) (Moscow, 1946), according to a notice in Eynikeyt (Unity).  Among his more substantial writings: “New materials on A. Kovner,” Yevreiskaya mysl’ (Jewish thought) (Leningrad, 1926); “The state of the book in Odessa, 1917-1921,” Pratsi Odes'koi tsentral'noi naukovoi biblioteki (Work of the Odessa Central Scientific Library) (Odessa, 1927), pp. 172-76; “Leaflets in Odessa, 1917-1921,” Pratsi Odes'koi tsentral'noi naukovoi biblioteki (Odessa, 1927), pp. 181-90; “Di yidishe kolonyes in vaysrusland nokh der tsveyter ibervanderung” (Jewish colonies in Byelorussia after the second migration), Tsaytshrift (Periodical) 2-3 (Minsk, 1928), pp. 111-38; “A fargesener nihilist [yehude-leyb lerner]” (A forgotten nihilist [Yehuda-Leyb Lerner), Filologishe shriftn (Philological writings) 3 [YIVO] (1929), pp. 473-84; “Tsu der geshikhte fun der ershter rusish-yidisher tsaytshrift” (On the history of the first Russian-Jewish periodical), Historishe shriftn (Historical writings) 1 [YIVO] (1929), pp. 595-608; “Ha-defus ha-ivri s. s. s. r. (khomer le-bibliografiya)…reshimat ha-sefarim ha-ivrim she-hofiu be-rusya ba-shanim ha-akhronot, mi-shnat trp”b ve-elekh” (Hebrew printing in the USSR [materials for a bibliography]…listing of the Hebrew books in Russia in recent years, from 1921 forward) (53 issues), Kiryat sefer (Republic of letters) 5 (Jerusalem, 1927-1928), pp. 250-54; “Archival Methods in Library Work,” Pratsi Odes'koi tsentral'noi naukovoi biblioteki (Odessa, 1929); “Aksenfelds pruv tsu grindn a drukeray in odes” (Aksenfeld’s effort to found a publishing house in Odessa), in Biblyologisher zamlbukh (Bibliological anthology) (Kiev, 1930), pp. 93-103; on a “Unrealized Project to Open a Jewish Publisher in Kiev in the Year 1836,” Bibliolohichni visti (1930), pp. 30-32; “An umbakante iberzetsung fun linetskis ‘poylishn yingl’” (A unknown translation of Linetsky’s “Polish Lad”), in Biblyologisher zamlbukh (Bibliological anthology) (Kiev, 1930), pp. 520-21; “Jews in the Zaporozhye Sech” [Cossacks], Istoricheskii sbornik (Historical essays) 1 (Leningrad, 1934), pp. 141-91; “The National Liberation War of the Ukrainian People Against Polish Rule and the Jewish People in Ukraine” and “From a Longer Monograph on the Jews in 17^th-18^th Centuries in Ukraine,” Istoricheskie zapiski 9 (Moscow, 1940), pp. 81-124; a biographical study of Yisroel Aksenfeld, in Metodn un zayn tsayt (Methods and its time) (Odessa, 1940), pp. 172-96; “Vegn mendeles epistolyarisher yerushe” (On Mendele’s epistolary heritage), Eynikeyt 2 (December 1947); “Questions of political economy in Russia in the 18^th century,” Istoricheskie zapiski 33 (Moscow, 1950), pp. 92-122.  He was last living in Odessa.

Sources: Dr. M. Vishnitser, in Tsukunft (August 1928), pp. 461-63; A. Tsh. (Tsherikover), in Historishe shriftn 1 (1929), pp 607-10; footnotes to Pratsi Odes'koi tsentral'noi naukovoi biblioteki (Odessa, 1929), vol. 3, p. 5; Sh. G. (Ginzburg), review of Borovoy’s book in Russian, in Yevreiskaya starina (Moscow, 1930), p. 184; Z. Ratner and L. Kvitko, Dos yidishe bukh in f.s.s.r. in di yorn 1917-1921 (The Yiddish book in the USSR for the years 1917-1921) (Kiev, 1930); P. Viernik, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (March 8, 1931); Y. Riminik, “A kapitl aksenfeld-byografye” (A chapter in the biography of Aksenfeld), Tsaytshrift (Minsk, 1931); Zalmen Reyzen, in Yivo bleter 1.3 (1931), pp. 193-207; Y. Bronshteyn, Farfestikte pozitsyes (Strident positions) (Moscow, 1934), pp. 206, 222-23, 227; Dr. Y. Shatski, in Yivo bleter 21.1 (New York, 1943), pp. 122-24, and (1944), pp. 134-37; Emkin, “Geshikhte fun der yidisher kultur in ukraine” (History of Jewish culture in Ukraine), Eynikeyt (Moscow) (March 28, 1946).

                                                                                                                              Aleksander Pomerants

[N.b. Since this entry was written, more information has become available about Borovoy.  He wrote a number of highly controversial pieces and a volume of memoirs in Russian which appeared posthumously in 1993.  Works whose titles are given solely in English above were originally published in Ukrainian or Russian; original titles unavailable—JAF]