YOYSEF LIFSHITS

YOYSEF LIFSHITS (December 23, 1902-August 3, 1976)

            He was born in Baranovich, Byelorussia.  He immigrated to South Africa in 1927.  He was a major philanthropist for Yiddish creativity.  Through his Lifshits Fund placed with YIVO, there was created the immense project “Musterverk fun der yidisher literatur” (Masterworks of Yiddish literature).  From 1957 until 1979, the fund published seventy-nine books in Buenos Aires—the remaining volumes through no. 100 were funded through a second benefactor.  He died in Johannesburg.

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 338.