YEHUDE-LEYB GRUZMAN

YEHUDE-LEYB GRUZMAN (March 4, 1902-June 11, 1961)

            He was born in Yedenits (Edineţ), Bessarabia, into a stern Hassidic home.  He ran away from home in 1915 to Odessa, where he studied in a yeshiva and later in a secular high school.  He became a Hebrew teacher in Czernowitz (Bukovina).  In 1922 he emigrated to Argentina, where he served as director of an YIKO (Jewish Cultural Organization) school in Mosesville (over 600 children).  He began writing in Hebrew in Czernowitz.  He published in Hashiloaḥ (The shiloah), Hateḥiya (The regeneration), and Hatsfira (The siren).  In Argentina he wrote for: Di yidishe tsaytung (The Jewish newspaper), Far groys un kleyn (For big and small), Zeglen (Sails), Habima haivrit (The Hebrew stage), and Heḥaluts (The pioneer).  He edited Di tribune (The tribune) in Mosesville and co-edited Penemer un penemlekh (Appearances, big and small) in Buenos Aires.  From 1929 he was the editor of the monthly Der shpigl (The mirror) in Buenos Aires.  In the jubilee volume for Di yidishe tsaytung (Buenos Aires, 1940), he published a long work entitled “Pyonern funem hebreish geredtn un geshribenem vort in argentine” (Pioneers of the Hebrew spoken and written word in Argentina), which later appeared in Antologye fun der yidisher literatur in argentine (Anthology of Yiddish literature in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1944), with the title “Hebreishe bikher un zeyere mekhabrim” (Hebrew books and their authors), pp. 227-38.  For many years he served as the Argentinian correspondent for Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal) in New York.  Together with Yankev Botoshanski, he published four books in the series Besaraber yidn (Bessarabian Jews).  He traveled on lecture tours through the United States and Canada.  Among his pen names: Leybele Bar-Mazl.  He was living until his death in Buenos Aires.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; N. Khanin, A reyze ariber tsentral un dorem amerike (A trip through Central and South America) (New York, 1942), pp. 236-38; Antologye fun der yidisher literatur in argentine (Buenos Aires, 1944), p. 227; Y. Botoshanski, in Di naye tsayt (Buenos Aires) (April 30, 1953); Botoshanski, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (September 15, 1954); A. Lipiner, in Der nayer moment (Sao Paulo) (May 22, 1953); M. Ravitsh, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (June 28, 1954); D. Krants, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (May 13, 1956); Dr. N. Sverdlin, in Tog-morgnm-zhurnal (March 22, 1954).