HERSHL
VAYNROYKH (January 5, 1903-May 21, 1983)
This was the adopted name of Hershl (Grigori)
Vinokur, born in Okhrimove (Okhrimovo), Kiev district, Ukraine. He father, Ben-Tsien Vinokur, divorced his
mother and moved to the United States, where he was a teacher in the Yeshiva Rabbi
Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn, New York. When
Hershl reached one year of age, his mother and her second husband, Gershon
Dulman, a furrier, moved to Odessa. He
studied in religious elementary school, later in a Talmud-Torah (of which,
incidentally, Mendele Moykher-Sforim was the manager), but at a very young age
he was forced to break off his studies and go to work, because his stepfather
died and his mother was left a widow with four young children. At age fifteen he volunteered to join the Red
Army and experienced the civil war of 1920-1921. He worked, 1922-1926, in the Odessa clothing
factory of Shveyprom (Shveinaia promyshlennostꞌ, Tailoring Department). At the same time, he returned to his studies
and in 1932 graduated from the literature faculty of the Odessa Pedagogical
Institute. He began writing in Russian,
but under the influence of the “Yiddish Section” in the Communist Party, he switched
to Yiddish. His first story, “Itke fun
shveyprom” (Itke from the Shveyprom) was published in Emes (Truth) in Moscow (March 8, 1926). He published fictional work in: Emes; Shtern (Star) in Kharkov; Oktyabr
(October), Yunger arbeter (Young
laborer), and Shtern in Minsk; Forpost (Outpost) in Birobidzhan; Di royte velt (The red world) in
Kharkov-Kiev; Provesen in Odessa (in
Russian); and in Vos geven un vos gevorn,
zamlbukh (What was and what has become, anthology) (Kiev, 1937). He spent the years 1932-1938 in Birobidzhan. He served as assistant editor of Birobidzhaner shtern (Birobidzhan
star). He was co-editor, 1940-1941, in Bialystok
of Byalistoker shtern (Bialystok star). In 1941 he was confined in the Minsk ghetto,
where he organized a partisan group and joined up with the Red Army. He then spent 1942-1945 again serving in the
Red Army, became a lieutenant, was wounded, received a military commendation,
and later an invalid’s pension. In 1946
he was active in the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in Moscow. That year he left for Romania. For a short time in 1947, he was in the
displaced persons’ camp in Munich, Germany.
He was the first president of the Jewish Writers’ and Journalists’ Union
among the survivors. From there he
departed for Israel. In July 1948 he
came to the United States. He published
works in: Unzer veg (Our way) in
Munich; Davar hashavua (Word of the
week) in Tel Aviv; Forverts
(Forward), Tog (Day), and Tsukunft (Future) in New York; and
elsewhere. Among his books, as “Hershl [or
Grigori] Vinokur”: In oyfkum,
dertseylungen (Arising) (Moscow, 1932), 223 pp.; Tayge-berg (Taiga mountains) (Minsk, 1935), 109 pp.; A brik iber der bire (A bridge over the
Biru [River]) (Minsk, 1936), 85 pp.; Der
ershter yeger (The first hunter) (Minsk, 1939), 83 pp.; Dos yingl fun okhrimove (The boy from
Okhrimovo), a novel (Minsk, 1942). Under
the name “Hershl Vaynroykh”: Goles bayern,
noveln un skitsn (Diaspora in Bavaria, stories and sketches) (Munich,
1947), 59 pp.; Blut af der zun, yidn in
sovet-farband (Blood on the sun, Jews in the Soviet Union) (Brooklyn,
1950), 207 pp.; Durkh zibn fayern, roman
(Through seven fires, a novel) (New York, 1951), 363 pp.; Adamizm, der mitl-punkt fun filozofye, ideologye, politik un religye
far haynt un morgn (Adamism, the mid-point among philosophy, ideology,
politics, and religion for today and tomorrow) (New York, 1954), 64 pp.; Komisarn, roman (Commissars, a novel)
(Buenos Aires: Union of Polish Jews, 1962), 2 volumes; Ven di zun fargeyt un di muze vaynt (When the sun sets and the muse
cries) (New York, 1982), 156 pp.[1] He died in New York.
Sources:
Y. Kvitni and Y. Mitlman, in Morgn-frayhayt
(New York) (January 9, 1933); Sh. Klitenik, in Forpost (Birobidzhan) 2 (1936); Y. Horn, in Yidish tsaytung (Buenos Aires) April 16, 1950); Kh. Liberman, in Forverts (New York) (May 10, 1950); Dr.
A. Mukdoni, in Morgn-zhurnal (New
York) (June 11, 1950; February 17, 1952); Y. Varshavski, in Forverts (October 15, 1950); A. Almi, in
Fraye arbeter shtime (New York) (July
1, 1955); Y. Gar, in Fun noentn over
(New York) 3 (1957), pp. 171, 174; Who Is
Who in World Jewry (New York, 1955).
Zaynvl Diamant
[Additional
information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon
fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New
York, 1986), col. 240.]
[1] Several of his books have appeared in English
translation: Adamism (Tucson, 1954); The Commissar (New York, 1965); A Grain of Salt (New York, 1965); A Ballad about Jerusalem (New York,
1982)—JAF.
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