YOYSEF LEVI

YOYSEF LEVI (1895-August 1944)

            He was born in Lodz, Poland.  He graduated from a Russian high school and then from the law faculty of Warsaw University.  He practiced for a time as a lawyer and then became a journalist.  He chaired the “Hitaḥdut” (the “union” of young Zionists) party in Poland.  He was a cofounder and for a time director of the Polish-Hebrew high school in Lodz.  He began writing for the Hebrew-language Hatsfira (The siren) in Warsaw in 1916, and from 1918 published as well in Yiddish and Polish.  He was an internal contributor, Sejm correspondent, and editor (1923-1924) of Lodzer tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper).  For many years he was the Lodz correspondent for Haynt (Today) and Przegląd (Overview) in Warsaw and member of the editorial board of Folk un land (People and land) in Lodz-Warsaw-Lemberg (1921-1934).  He also contributed work to: Bafrayung (Liberation) in Warsaw (1919-1920); Dos fraye vort (The free word) in Lemberg (1920-1921, 1930-1934); Unzer ruf (Our call) in Vienna (1921-1922); Unzer tribune (Our tribune) in Lodz (1935), for which he also served as editor; Bederekh (On the road) in Warsaw; and Hapoel hatsair (The young laborer) in Tel Aviv; among others.  He co-edited (with Dr. A. Tartakover) Yidisher shul-byuletin (Jewish school bulletin) in Lodz (1926-1928).  He also published under such pen names as: Yoysef Ivri, Y. Lev, and Ego.  Until WWII he was living in Lodz, where he was a member of the Jewish community administration.  After the entrance of the Nazis into Lodz, he was in the first group of Jewish intellectuals whom the Gestapo arrested, but for an enormous ransom he was released.  For a time he hid out, later living in the confines of the ghetto.  In August 1944, at the time of the liquidation of the ghetto, he was deported to Auschwitz and murdered there.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), see index; N. Meltsar, Pirke galitsiya (Chapters from Galicia) (Tel Aviv, 1957), pp. 196, 228, 236; Khayim Leyb Fuks, in Fun noentn over (New York) 3 (1957), pp. 214, 262; information from Arn Alpern in New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks