BEN-SHOLEM (b. 1890)
This was the pseudonym of Shimen Shneyder. He was born in Smorgon (Smarhon’), Vilna
region, into a Hassidic family. He
attended religious primary school, had private tutors, and also studied at a
Russian public school. From 1909 he was
living in the United States. He lived
for a while in New York, later moving to Chicago where he worked as a laborer
in a rubber factory. His first
publications were poetry in Di velt (The world) in Chicago in 1918. Later he contributed to Fraye arbeter
shtime (Free voice of labor), Dos vort (The word), and Di
vegetarishe velt (The vegetarian world), among other serials. He collaborated on the literary editions of
the Chicago workers’ group: In nebl (In the haze) of 1919, Rezonans
(Resonance), Yugend (Youth), and Af katoves (In jest). Under the influence of the Introspectivists,
he published poems and free verse in the anthologies: Yung-shikago
(Young Chicago) of 1922, Ineynem (Together) of 1925, and Midvest-mayrev
(Midwest-west) of 1933, among others.
Sources:
Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Bal-Makhshoves, in Morgn-zhurnal
(New York) (December 3, 1924); Lea Mishkin, in Pinkes shikago (Records
of Chicago) (1951), pp. 4-5; Midvest-mayrev (Chicago, 1933), pp. 19-33.
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