SHLOYME BRAYNSKI (SALOMON BRAINSKI)

SHLOYME BRAYNSKI (SALOMON BRAINSKI) (1902-December 9, 1955)

            He was born in Żelichów, Poland.  Until age thirteen he studied in religious primary school and a yeshiva.  He was a carpenter by trade.  From his early youth, he was active in the Poale-tsiyon movement.  In 1925 he emigrated to Israel, and in 1928 he returned to Żelichów.  In 1934 he was living in Bogotá, Colombia.  He began publishing in 1924 in Undzer hofenung (Our hope), edited by Y. M. Vaysenberg, in Warsaw.  Chapters of a novel, Libe fun a meshugenem (Love of a crazy man), were later published in Tsukunft (Future) and Forverts (Forward) in New York (1935).  And he published in: Shpigl (Mirror) in Buenos Aires; Yizker-bukh fun der zhelekhover kehile (Memory book of the Żelichów community) (Chicago, 1953); Goldene keyt (Golden chain) in Tel Aviv; and in Spanish-language journals in Bogotá.  His books include: Mentshn in shpan (People in harness) (Buenos Aires: Khudaika, 1946), 278 pp., first in Spanish in a translation by Luis Vidales; Ven fundamentn treyslen zikh (When the foundations shake) (Chicago, 1951), 165 pp.; Mentshn fun zhelekhov (People from Żelichów) (Buenos Aires: Farband fun poylishe yidn, 1961), 261 pp.  He died in Bogotá.

Sources: Enciclopedia Judaica Castellana, vol. 2 (Mexico City, 1948), pp. 345-46; Zhelikhover buletin (Chicago) 4 (April 1950); Y. Glants, in Der veg (Mexico) (April 15, 1950); G. Biderman, in Keneder odler (April 9, 1951).

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 119.]