ELYE (ELIAS) GILNER (December 5, 1890-February 2, 1976)
This was the pen name of
Khayim-Yitskhok Ginzburg, born in Volkovisk (Wołkowysk), Grodno
region, Russian Poland. At age five he
emigrated with his parents to the United States. Soon thereafter, he returned with them to
Lodz, where he lived until 1905 when his father sent for the family to come to
Baku, Kavkaz. In Lodz, he studied in
religious elementary school, later graduating a public primary school; in Baku
he studied privately, later graduating from a secular high school as an
external student. In the revolutionary
of October 1905, he took part in the stormy events in Derbent, Kavkaz
(Caucasus). He began writing in Russian
at age eighteen or nineteen. He
published theater reviews and social reportage pieces in the local Russian
newspaper, Baku. In 1912 he
emigrated to America. In 1919 there
appeared in Haezraḥ
(The citizen) in Tel Aviv the Hebrew translation of a story of his and from a
one-act play of his, both having been written in Russian. The Hebrew translation of another one-act
play of his (written originally in English) appeared in Hashiloaḥ (The shiloah) in
1921. His poems as well as articles
about Zionism appeared at that time in Makabeyen (Maccabis), later in New
Palestine. He served, 1922-1923, on
the editorial board of the Yiddish-English journal Der idishe soldat
(The Jewish soldier), for which he wrote articles and sketches in both Yiddish
and English. In 1925 he published in Tsukunft
(Future) in New York the drama Ferdinand lasal (Ferdinand
Lassalle). He contributed to Tog
(Day) in New York and to the Yiddish-English magazines: Opinyen
(Opinion), Menoyre (Menorah), Kongres vikli (Congress weekly), Kenedyen
dzhuish kronikl (Canadian Jewish chronicle), and to the daily Palestine
Post. In 1953 he wrote the
historical novel Prince of Israel in English (New York:
Exposition Press), 347 pp., and he published it serially in Tog that
same year. His memoirs in English, “Jews
Who Fought” and “The Landing,” were published in Braille (for the blind). His theatrical piece Shmates un brilyantn
(Rags and diamonds) was staged in 1926 in Montreal; in Israel his one-act
plays, Meaḥore
hapargod (Behind the curtains) and Shaul vebaalat haov (Saul and the
sorceress), were staged in 1948; and in Buenos Aires and New York his drama Dos
kol fun yisroel (The voice of Israel).
Over the years 1934-1935, he edited the revisionist journal Our Voice
in New York. His one-act play, We
Will Never Die, premiered in New York in 1930 in English. Among his pseudonyms: Elias, Eliyahu Ben Ir,
Eliyahu Maror, Alef Giml, and Eliyahu Ginzburg.
Gilner was a Zionist from his
earliest years. He belonged to the Labor
Zionists, 1907-1921. In 1918 he helped
organize and later took part in the Jewish Legion. In 1920 he was one of the organizers of the
Haganah in Jerusalem, commander of the Bezalel Division. He was arrested (Passover, 1920) by the
British and sentenced to three years hard labor. He was freed after four months sitting in the
Acco Fortress. He was president,
1933-1935, of the Revisionist Zionist Party in America. In 1939, he was a member of “Vaad hadar
hakarmel” (Committee of Hadar) in Haifa.
From 1941 to 1950, he served as president of the Jewish Legions. He was elected to this same position through
1955. At the end of 1940, he resigned
from the Revisionist Party and in 1941 joined the general Zionists
organization. He was living in Brooklyn,
New York, and passed away in Eastchester.
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