AVROM BLUM

AVROM BLUM (July 15, 1893-May 21, 1960)

     Born in Radzivilov, Vilna region, Russia, he was raised by his maternal grandparents.  He received a Jewish education and at age fourteen also graduated from the state school.  He worked with his uncle, a lawyer.  He studied for three years in a yeshiva in Kishinev.  For a short time he lived in Paris, and from there he emigrated to the United States.  He studied English in evening school, while working in a tailor’s shop and as a clerk for the Pennsylvania Railroad.  He continued his studies at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.  He published poems in a Catholic newspaper and translated for English-language magazines one-act plays by Turgenev and Chekhov.  He later wrote dramas which in the 1920s and 1930 were performed in the Yiddish theater.  He also translated into Yiddish plays from the European repertoire and adapted Yiddish theatrical pieces for the English stage.

Sources: Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater) (1931), vol. 1, with a short bibliography; L. Fogelman, in Forverts (New York) (February 13, 1931); E. Flayshman, in Tog (New York) (February 13, 1931); Y. Kirshenboym, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (February 13, 1931); N. B. Linder, in Tog (December 25, 1931); Ab. Kahan, in Forverts (December 11, 1931 and October 18, 1932); V. Edlin, in Tog (December 11, 1931); H. Rogof, in Forverts (January 8, 1932); Dr. A. Mukdoni, in Morgn-zhurnal (October 18, 1935).