SHEPSL VAYSENFELD

SHEPSL VAYSENFELD (1896-1981)

            He was born in Vilna.  He studied in a Jewish workers’ evening school.  In 1921 he left for the Soviet Union.  In 1925 he graduated from Moscow’s Western University.  He worked in the main office of the Yevsektsye (Jewish division).  From 1926 he was editor of Der yidisher poyer (The Jewish farmer) and later of Dos sotsyalistishe dorf (The socialist village).  He published articles in Emes (Truth) and Shtern (Star).  His work includes: Der dorfrat un di durkhoysike kolektivizatsye (The village council and thorough collectivization) (Moscow-Minsk: Central Publ., 1920), 20 pp.  He fought on the front during WWII, and after the war he settled in Moscow, where he published jittings, historical works, and memoirs for the journal Sovetish heymland (Soviet homeland).

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 245.  Additional information from: Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), pp. 140-41.