DOVID DAVIDOVITSH (DAVID DAVIDOVITCH)

DOVID DAVIDOVITSH (DAVID DAVIDOVITCH) (November 20, 1905-1993)

            He was born Pabyanits (Pabianice), near Lodz, Poland, into a prominent family.  He studied in religious primary school, Polish high school, and later graduated as an engineer from Strasbourg University.  He worked for a time in Paris, and from 1933 he was living in Israel.  From his youth he was active in the Hashomer Hatsair (Youth guard).  He was also known as a painter and draftsman.  He began to write in Polish, and later he switched to Yiddish and Hebrew.  For many years he was the Israeli correspondent for Pabyanitser tsaytung (Pabyanits newspaper), 1930-1939, in which he also published essays on Jewish art and Jewish artists.  He contributed pieces to Haarets (The land), Had hadefus (Echo of the printing press), and Gazit (Hewn stone) in Tel Aviv.  He was the author of an illustrated, colored monograph entitled Megilat pabyanits (The scroll of Pabyanits) (Tel Aviv, 1938); co-editor (with A. V. Yasni, M. V. Korman, and G. Raykhman) of Sefer pabyanits (The book of Pabyanits), a remembrance volume from this suffering community (Tel Aviv, 1956), 420 pp., with illustrations, in which he published the essays: “Dos yidishe pabyanits” (Jewish Pabyanits), “Alte holts-shuln in pabyantitser svive” (Old wooden synagogues in the Pabyanits region), and “Kultur-institutsyes un di pabyanitser tsaytung” (Cultural institutions in the Pabyanits tsaytung) which was an important contribution to Jewish history in this city.  He also published under the names: Dovtshe, Dovid, and Di.  He was living in Tel Aviv.

Source: D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 9 (Tel Aviv, 1958), p. 3408.