LEYB GRINHOYZ

LEYB GRINHOYZ (July 17, 1869-February 10, 1954)

            He was born in Bialystok, Poland, to poor parents.  He studied in religious elementary school, yeshiva, and with private teachers.  At age fifteen he began working as an employee in a business, later becoming a weaver.  He was one of the founders of the Bund in Bialystok.  Between 1902 and 1916, he was director of an elementary school for girls and an evening school for adults in Bialystok.  His first published work was a pamphlet entitled In vos iz ayer hilf? (Where’s your assistance?), which appeared illegally and was confiscated by the Tsarist police during an ambush of the Bundist publishing house in Bialystok in 1901.  He later translated from the Russian the novel Spartak (Spartacus) by Raffaele Giovagnoli [original: Spartaco], as well as a book of stories by Anton P. Chekhov.  In 1910 he published in Warsaw a booklet entitled Shlogt nit keyn kinder, oder vi zol men kinder ertsihen?: a ernst vort far elteren un melamdim (Don’t hit children, how should we raise children?: A serious word for parents and teachers), 34 pp., with a second edition published by the Hebrew Publishing Company (New York, 1911).  In 1917 he emigrated to the United States, settling in New York.  He worked in a short factory and continued writing.  He contributed pieces to: Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor), Kamf (Struggle), Tsayt (Times), Tog (Day), Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal), Der amerikaner (The American), Frayhayt (Freedom) with a series of articles on pedagogy, and Byalistoker shtime (Voice of Bialystok) with a history of Bialystok until the founding of the Bund.  His pamphlet Vi azoy tsu bafrayen dem mogn fun gaz (esid) un farleyngerte mogn shmertsn (How to release gas [acid] from the stomach and relieve stomach pain) (New York, 1928), 41 pp.  He died in New York.  He left in manuscript form: Durkhn fenster fun lebn (Through the window of life), stories and sketches; Kishef (Magic); Spiritualizm (Spiritualism); Shvarts-kintsleray un magik, vi azoy dos vert gemakht (The black arts and magic, how to make it work), portions of which were published in Frayhayt in New York; Di geshikhte fun byalistok (The history of Bialystok); Der veg-vayzer in kinder-dertsiung (The guide to raising children), and others.  He also wrote under the pseudonym L. Grin.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; A. Sh. Hershberg, in Pinkes byalistok (Records of Bialystok) (New York, 1950), p. 340; Byalistoker shtime (New York) (April 1954).