AVROM VAYSBOYM (ABRAHAM WEISBAUM)

AVROM VAYSBOYM (ABRAHAM WEISBAUM) (November 10, 1895-1970)

            He was born in Konskevolye (Końskowola), Lublin district, Poland, into a Hassidic family.  He studied in religious elementary school, synagogue study hall, yeshiva, and a small Hassidic prayer house.  He later became a private tutor.  During the years of WWI, he made his way to Harbin (1918), where he worked as a prompter for the theatrical troupe of Avrom Fishzon.  In 1921 he moved with a portion of the troupe to Shanghai, acted in theater there, and was later a business employee and private tutor.  He began publishing articles in the English-language Jewish monthly Mevaser yisrael-Israel’s Messenger.  He wrote articles there under the title “Ideas and Impressions.”  In 1925 he moved on to Mexico City.  From 1931 he was a regular contributor to Der veg (The way) there (initially published as a weekly, later thrice weekly).  He wrote features, impressions, and theater criticism.  His books include: Meksikaner zigzag, geklibene felyetonen, monologn, humoresḳes un bilder (Mexican zigzags, selected features, monologues, humorous sketches, and images), with an introduction by Salomon Kahan (Mexico City: Visn, 1947), 410 pp. (awarded a prize from the Tsvi Kessel Fund in Mexico City); Untern yisorel-himl, rayze ayndruk, tog-bukh (Under the Israeli sky, travel impressions and diary), with a foreword by Yitskhok Berliner (Mexico City: Hemshekh, 1954), 355 pp.; In meksikaner gan-eydn, geklibene felyetonen, humoreskes un monologn (In the Mexican Garden of Eden, selected features, humorous sketches, and monologues), with a foreword by Yankev Glants (Mexico City: Hemshekh, 1960), 328 pp.  He was living in Mexico City until his death.

Sources: Y. Berliner, in Der veg (Mexico City) (August 21 and September 22, 1947; October 23, 1954); A. Z. Berebitshes, in Der veg (October 12, 1947); Kh. Lazdeynski, in Der shpigl (Buenos Aires) (November 1947); Lazdeynski, in Der veg (December 21, 1954); Sh. Borukhovitsh, in Afrikaner yidishe tsaytung (Johannesburg) (December 31, 1948); A. Volf-Yasni, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (April 12, 1953); S. Kahan, in Di shtime (Mexico City) (October 16, 1954); Der Lebediker, in Tog-morgn zhurnal (New York) (November 6, 1955).