SHLOYME BERKOVITSH

SHLOYME BERKOVITSH (September 15,1888-December 31, 1954)

He was born in Pereyaslav, Ukraine.  In 1903 he emigrated to Canada and lived in Montreal and worked in a sweatshop.  In 1910 he was one of the founders of the first Jewish secular school in Montreal.  In 1916 when branches of the Workmen’s Circle began to open schools, he was invited to be the manager and a teacher in the Philadelphia school.  In 1923 he moved to New York and became one of the founders of the “Sholem-Aleykhem Folk Institute.”  He was also connected to the Sholem Aleichem Folk Institutes in Detroit and in Chicago.  Together with Yudel Mark, Y. Kh. Pomerants, and Dr. M. Bronshteyn, he edited Shul-pinkes, aroysgegebn lekoved dem tsvantsikstn yoyvl, 1926-1946 (School records, published to commemorate the twentieth anniversary [of the Sholem Aleichem Folk Institute], 1926-1946) (Chicago, 1948), 674 pp.  He contributed to the Shul-pinkes an essay entitled “Di stires tsvishn teorye un praktik in undzer yidisher shul” (The discrepancies between theory and practice in our Jewish school).  He also wrote a memoir concerning Dr. Chaim Zhitlovsky and others.  During WWII, due to ill health, he moved to Florida and California.  He died in Los Angeles.

Sources: L. Shpizman, “Etapn fun der geshikhte fun der tsienistisher arbeter-bavegung in tsofn-amerike” (Stages in the history of the Zionist labor movement in North America) (New York, 1955); Lipe Lehrer, “Shloyme berkovitsh, olevasholem” (Shloyme Berkovitsh, may he rest in peace), Kinder-zhurnal (New York) (February 1954); obituary in Forverts (New York) (January 1, 1955).