VOLF GELBART

VOLF GELBART (September 15, 1882-May 19, 1945)

            He was born in Ozerkov (Ozorków), near Lodz, Poland.  His father was a well-known prayer leader in the region and extremely poor.  Due to poverty, he took his son out of elementary school at age nine and put him in the hands of a weaver.  Volf later on his own learned German and Russian.  He devoured works of literature, history, and philosophy.  In 1905 he left for Berlin and graduated there from a weaving school.  In 1906, he and hundreds of others Russian citizens—the majority of whom were Jews—were expelled from Poland.  He went to Copenhagen, Denmark, and from there to the United States where he worked as a silk weaver in Paterson, New Jersey.  He began writing in German, and the first items that he published appeared in the German newspaper Der Volksfreund (The friend of the people) in New York in 1908.  In 1909 he turned to Yiddish, and from that point he had his stories and sketches published in: Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor), Naye tsayt (New time), Dos idishe folk (The Jewish people), Tsukunft (Future), and virtually every week in the daily Varhayt (Truth) until it merged with Tog (Day).  In 1921 he published in Tog and in Di tsayt (The times) a series of articles about Jewish singing associations and Jewish choral song.  In 1922 he edited in Paterson the weekly newspaper Der shtern (The star), which also had an English section edited by Dr. Max Reyzen.  In 1926-1927, he published in Tog a short novel entitled Ven hertser blien (When hearts thrive), which was republished in Lodzher tageblat.  Among his books: Freydn un leydn (Joys and sorrows), a collection of stories and sketches of Jewish life in America (New York, 1920), 232 pp.; and Af tsvey kontinentn (On two continent), a novel (Paterson, 1941), 232 pp.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Sh. Lonshayn, in Nyu-yorker vokhnblat (New York weekly newspaper) 172 (1942); Avrom Reyzen, in Di feder (New York) (1949); Kh. L. Fuks, in Fun noentn over 3 (New York, 1957); Sh. Slutski, Avrom Reyzen biblyografye (Avrom Reyzen’s bibliography) (New York, 1956), no. 5314.