VOLF DIKLER (WOLF DYKLER)

VOLF DIKLER (WOLF DYKLER) (b. 1899)

            He was born in Hrubyeshov (Hrubieszów), Lublin region, Poland, into a poor fisher family.  He studied in religious elementary school until age ten.  In 1918 he worked as a fisherman and fruit grower, later serving in the Polish military until 1923, and later still he left for Argentina and became a laborer.  There he became active in the Jewish labor and school movement.  In 1931 he settled in Montevideo.  He was a typesetter by trade.  He was an important Jewish cultural leader and for many years secretary of the Uruguayan division of YIVO.  In 1938 he founded a society for Jewish cultural rapprochement with the American communities.  His first publishing efforts were in Der prese (The press) (Buenos Aires): articles, poems, stories, and translations from Spanish and Russian.  He later contributed to: Idishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) and Dorem-amerkie (South America) in Buenos Aires; and Folksblat (People’s newspaper), Unzer veg (Our way), Amerike (America), and Unzer shul (Our school), among others, in Montevideo.  Among his books: Di geshikhte fun urugvay (The history of Uruguay), based on the works of Francisco Bauzá (Montevideo, vol. 1, 1937, 69 pp.; vols. 2 and 3, 1938, 110 pp.; vol. 4, 1938, 89 pp.).  He translated from Spanish several books and pamphlets, among them: the play Barg-arop (Downhill) (Montevideo, 1937), 94 pp., by Florencio Sánchez [original: Barranca abajo (Downwards gully)].  He was the editor of the journal Amerike, kontinentaler zhurnal tsu bakenen idn mit der amerikanisher kultur (America, continental journal to acquaint Jews with American culture) (Montevideo, 1944), in which he published a variety of works.  He also developed here the idea of a Jewish cultural federation of all Jewish communities in the Americas, with the goal of supporting the school and cultural movement.

Source: Sh. Rozhanski, Dos yidishe gedrukte vort in argentine (The printed Yiddish word in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1941), p. 184.