DOVID VERTHEYM

DOVID VERTHEYM (November 30, 1898-April 10, 1953)

            He was born in Bender, Bessarabia, into a rabbinic family.  He received both a Jewish and a secular education.  He studied in a yeshiva and in the Universities of Odessa and Berlin.  In his youth he joined the “Tseire Tsiyon” (Youth Zionists).  In 1922 he left Russia and lived for a short time in Berlin, and in 1923 came to the United States where he became active in the Zionist labor movement.  He was member, 1924-1925, of the central committee of Tseire Tsiyon in America.  He assisted with the unification of Tseire Tsiyon and Labor Zionists, and he was a member of the Zionist action committee and of the American Jewish Congress.  He was also active in HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and the Joint Distribution Committee.  He traveled with talks on Zionist issues through the American hinterland as well as abroad.  In 1949-1950 he was living in Israel.  His writing activities began with articles for the serial press of his party in Russia and Romania.  He contributed, 1950-1953, to Der idisher kemfer (The Jewish fighter) in New York, of which he was editorial secretary for twelve years.  He authored the pamphlet: Der revizyonizm, zayn geshikhte, zayne maysim-toyvin (Revisionism, its history and its good deeds) (New York, 1934), 19 pp.  He died in Havana, Cuba, where he was on a community assignment.

Sources: Pinkhes Even-Donz, in Folksblat (Montevideo) (April 15, 1953); obituary notice in Hadoar (New York) (April 17, 1953); A. Hemlin, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (April 24, 1953); Sh. Sokol, in Idisher kemfer (April 30, 1954).