AVROM HERSHKOVITS (ABE HERSHKOVIZ)

AVROM HERSHKOVITS (ABE HERSHKOVIZ) (b. December 23, 1887)

            He was born in Patsanov (Pacanów), Kielce district, Poland, into a laboring family.  He studied in religious primary school and in synagogue study hall.  At age sixteen he began working as a tailor, and he became active in the socialist movement.  From 1907 he was living in New York.  He was also active in the Socialist Party, in the trade union movement, and in the Workmen’s Circle.  In 1934 he was a delegate to the congress of tailors in London, and upon his return he was a candidate of the Socialist Party to the legislature of the state of New York.  He began writing in 1921 for Der veker (The alarm) in New York, and later he published articles in: Forverts (Forward), Varhayt (Truth), Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal), and Tageblat (Daily newspaper)—all in New York.  Among his books: Azoy lakht a shnayder (That’s how a tailor laughs), with a foreword by N. Khanin (New York, 1947), 89 pp.; Zakhn tsum lakhn (Things to laugh about), popular humorous sketches and scenes, with a foreword by Mark Shveyd (New York, 1954), 352 pp.  Together with B. Frishvaser, he edited the Workmen’s Circle humorous Der konvenshon-bezim (The convention bulletin).  He also published under the pen name “Avreml.”

Sources: B. Vaynshteyn, Yidishe yunyons in amerike (Jewish unions in America) (New York, 1929), p. 295; Avrom Reyzen, in Di feder (New York) (1949); Y. Yeshurin and Y. Sh. Herts, 50 yor arbeter ring (Fifty years of the Workmen’s Circle) (New York, 1950), p. 389; H. Morgenshtern, in Tog-morgn zhurnal (New York) (June 3, 1954).