LEYB YUDEYKIN

LEYB YUDEYKIN (b. May 1, 1904)

            He was born in Mazheyk (Mažeikiai), Lithuania.  At age twenty-one he moved to South Africa and settled in Johannesburg.  In July 1928 he debuted in print with a poem—“A zuntog in an afrikaner shtetl” (A Sunday in an African town)—in the monthly Dorem-afrike (South Africa) in Johannesburg.  He later published stories about Jewish life in South Africa in: the weekly newspaper Afrikaner idishe tsaytung (African Jewish newspaper); the monthly journals Foroys (Onward) and Dorem-afrike; and Dorem-afrikaner almanakh (South African almanac)—all in Johannesburg.  He was active in the joint ORT (Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades) and OZE (Obschestvo zdravookhraneniia evreev—Society for the Protection of the Health of the Jewish Population).