SHLOYME VAYNRIB

SHLOYME VAYNRIB (1888-late 1942)

            He was born in a town in Kielce district, Poland, into a poor, Hassidic family.  He studied in religious elementary school, synagogue study hall, and in the yeshiva of the Gerer rebbe.  In 1920 he moved to Lodz and worked for a time as an elementary school teacher in the yeshiva “Maḥazike Hadat” (Strengtheners of the faith), while at the same time he was active in the movement of Poale Agudat Yisrael (Workers for [ultra-Orthodox] Agudat Yisrael).  He began writing Hebrew poetry in his yeshiva years, later switching to Yiddish.  He was among the first religiously observant Yiddish poets in Poland.  He was also a researcher into Kotsker Hassidism.  He debuted in print with a poem in N. L. Vayngot’s Dos yudishe vort (The Jewish word) in Warsaw (1919), later contributing to Der yud (The Jew), Dos yudishe togblat (The Jewish daily newspaper), and Der flaker (The flare) in Warsaw, in which (aside from poems and stories) he also published articles concerned with Jewish issues.  With the founding of a young group of Orthodox writers, he was one of its active leaders.  He placed work in virtually all of the Yiddish and Hebrew publications of Poale Agudat Yisrael in Poland.  He contributed to the first Orthodox literary collection, Friling (Spring) (Lodz, 1922), as well as to Mesoyre-bleter (Pages of tradition) in 1925-1926, Der yudisher arbayter (The Jewish laborer), Yudishe arbayter-shtime (Voice of Jewish laborers), Ortodoksishe bleter (Orthodox pages) of which he was also editor, Beys-yankev zhurnal (Beys Yankev journal), and Kindergorten (Kindergarten), among others—all in Lodz.  He was also a regular contributor to “Mesoyre farlag” (Tradition Publishers), for which he translated into Yiddish a series of writings from archaic Yiddish Orthodox writers, among them the historical tales and novels of Dr. Marcus Lehmann: Der firsht fun kutsi, historishe ertseylung (The Fürst von Coucy, historical tale) (Lodz, 1926); Af milkhome (To war) (Lodz, 1927), 89 pp.  In Hebrew he wrote for: Deglanu (Our banner) and Darkenu (Our path)—in Warsaw.  Until the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, he worked as a specialist in preparing young rabbis in the modernized elementary school of Gershon-Eli Lis in Lodz, before leaving for Warsaw.  In early 1940 he left with his family for the city of his birth, and there with the entire Jewish population he was murdered by the Nazis.  According to a second source, Moyshe Prager, he died in Lodz at the end of 1937.

Sources: Khayim Leyb Fuks, in Fun noentn over (New York 3 (1957), p. 242; M. Prager, Leor haemuna (To the light of faith) (New York, 1958) p. 310.