SHMUEL (SAMUEL) YAKABI

SHMUEL (SAMUEL) YAKABI (1881-December 21, 1956)

            He was born in Stryj, Galicia.  In 1906 he moved to the United States, worked for a time as a Hebrew teacher and as a kosher food inspector for a butcher, and later became a worker in a butcher shop; he was the founder and the first secretary of the Jewish butchers’ union (1908).  Over the years 1917-1928, he was a member of the national executive of Workmen’s Circle.  He published poetry and stories in: Forverts (forward), Frayhayt (Freedom), Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal), Der amerikaner (The American), Der butsher arbayter (The butcher shop worker), Di kosher butsher shtime (The voice of the kosher butcher), 30 yor progres fun idisher butsher arbeter yunyon (“30 years of progress, 1909-1939, Hebrew Butcher Workers Union Local 234 A. F. of L.”) (1939); Kosher butsher vokhnblat (Kosher butcher weekly newspaper), and others—all in New York.  In book form: Der shpigl fun butsher, novelen, ertseylungen, humoreskes (The butcher’s mirror, novellas, stories, humorous sketches) (New York, 1937), 189 pp.  He died in the Home for Elderly Members of Workmen’s Circle in New York.

Sources: Y. Zar, introduction to Der shpigel fun butsher (The butcher’s mirror) (New York, 1937), pp. 5-6; Y. Yeshurin, in 50 yor arbeter-ring in yidishn lebn (Fifty years of the Workmen’s Circle in Jewish life), by Y. Sh. Herts (New York, 1950), p. 339; obituary notice in Forverts (New York) (December 23, 1956); information from his daughter, B. Seltser, in New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks