MOYSHE BLAYSHTIFT

MOYSHE BLAYSHTIFT (1892-July 28, 1932)

     Born in Lodz, he attended religious elementary school and later an artisanal school from which he graduated at age sixteen.  For a certain period of time he worked as an employee.  From 1916 he was a writer for Lodzher tageblat (Lodz daily news).  He wrote about Jewish social issues as well as theater reviews.  He translated into Yiddish Dr. Leo Pinsker’s Selbstemanzipation as Oytoemansipatsye (Lodz, 1919), Y. Pasmanik’s Stranstvuyushchii Izrail’ (psikhologiya yevreystva v razseyanii) as Di psikhologye fun goles-yudentum (The psychology of Diaspora Judaism) (Lodz, 1918), and Henryk Sienkiewicz’s trilogy: Mit fayer un shverd (With fire and sword), Der mabl (The deluge), and Volodovski (Pan Wolodyjowski) (Warsaw, 1924-1927).  He also translated into Hebrew (for Hatsfira [The times]) stories by L. Zhitnitski and A. Eisenschloss, as well as Jerzy Żuławski’s Shabtai Tsevi (published by A. Y. Shtibel [Warsaw, 1924]).  He translated into Yiddish the drama Loyalitet (Loyalties) by John Galsworthy (Warsaw, 1928).  He participated in Habima, the Hebrew-language theater, in Lodz.  Pseudonyms employed: M. Efruni, B. Shtift, and Eni, among others.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Z. Zilbertsvayg, Teater-leksikon, vol. 1.