YOYEL-DOVID DEMBITSER

YOYEL-DOVID DEMBITSER (February 16, 1886-April 30, 1924)

            He was born in Cracow, Poland, son of R. Pinkhes-Elyahu and brother of the writer Peysekh Dembitser.  He received rabbinical ordination at age eighteen.  Later, he graduated from a secular high school in Cracow.  He served as secretary of a local rabbinical seminary.  He subsequently became an active socialist and a member of the Bund.  He translated from Greek and from Polish into Yiddish.  In pamphlet form, he brought out: Juliusz Słowacki’s In der shvayts (In Switzerland [original: W Szwajcarii]) (Cracow, 1920), 20 pp.  Together with Y. Rotersman, he also translated An-sky’s Dybbuk into Polish (Cracow, 1922), and he published translations from Greek in Labor Zionist publications.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; G. Bader, Medina veḥakhameha (The state and its sages) (New York, 1934), p. 74; Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 1, p. 566.