YUDE YAKUBOVITSH

YUDE YAKUBOVITSH (November 26, 1891-1965)

            He was born in Lodz, Poland.  In his youth he lost his father, and at age fourteen became a print shop worker.  Over the years 1905-1909, he was active in the trade union movement in Vlotslavek (Włocławek), Kutne (Kutno), and Warsaw.  He later returned to Lodz where he was one of the founders of the Jewish Print Shop Workers’ Union, which fell under the influence of the Bund.  He was arrested on several occasions, among them during a protest strike against the Beilis Trial in 1913.  Because of police repression, he was forced to leave Poland.  In March 1914 he arrived in France where, until 1923, he was an active leader in the Bund, later one of the directors of the federation of Jewish associations in France and the Society for Children’s Defense—“Colonie Scolaire” on Rue Amelot.  He was cofounder and secretary of the illegal Amelot Committee which save 1,000 children from German extermination.  He was a member of the Central French Jewish Defense Committee.  Together with the American Army in August 1944, he returned to Paris where he further assisted in building an array of national community and cultural institutions.  He began writing with correspondence pieces for Di tsayt (The times) in St. Petersburg (1913), and from that point he contributed to the Russian-language Golos (Voice) and Nashe slovo (Our word) in Paris, and in Yiddish (also under the name “Ben-Tsvi”) in: Dos arbeter-vort (The workers’ word) (London, 1916); Byuletin fun der rusisher emigratsye (Bulletin of the Russian emigration) (Paris, 1917); Folks-tsaytung (People’s newspaper) (Warsaw); Parizer bleter (Parisian pages) (Paris, 1923-1926); Der nayer dor (The new generation) and Der veker (The alarm)—of which he was also co-editor; and Unzer shtime (Our voice) and Unzer vort (Our word) in Paris; among others.  He served as co-editor for: Almanakh yidishe kinder-kolonye (Almanac of the Jewish children’s colony) (Paris, 1931), 400 pp.; Byuletin fun der rusisher emigratsye; and Arbeter hilf (Workers’ aid).  From 1933 he was editor of the French trade union weekly in Paris, L’Intermédiare Fourrure.  In book form: Ri alemo, hilf un vidershtand (The Amelot Committee, assistance and uprising) (Paris, 1948), 142 pp., with a supplement by Y. Bil.  He died in Paris.

Sources: Unzer vort (Paris) (June 13, 1952); H. Binder, in Arbeter-vort (Paris) (June 27, 1952).

Khayim Leyb Fuks