YOYSEF MILER

YOYSEF MILER (December 22, 1888-1942)

            He was born in Kamianka Strumilova, near Lemberg, Galicia, the son of the rabbi of Zlotshev (Złoczów).  He studied with his father and in a yeshiva, and later he graduated from a Polish high school.  During WWI he was a soldier in the Austrian army in Poland.  Until late 1918 he lived in Lublin, later in Lodz.  From 1923 until WWII, he was in Tarnov (Tarnów), where he was the official court translator of Yiddish and Hebrew documents, as well as the official censor of Yiddish and Hebrew publishers in the Tarnów district.  He began his writing activities in Naye folkstsaytung (New people’s newspaper) in Reyshe (Rzeszów) in 1908, and from then he contributed allegories, aphorisms, and puns to: Lemberger togblat (Lemberg daily newspaper); Lubliner togblat (Lublin daily newspaper); Lodger tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper), Folksblat (People’s newspaper), and Der idisher zhurnalist (The Jewish journalist) in Lodz; Idishe folkstsaytung (Jewish people’s newspaper) in Rzeszów (1920-1922); and Forverts (Forward) in New York (1924-1930).  He published over 3,000 aphorisms.  He was active in Jewish cultural and community life in Tarnów until the Nazi occupation, later confined in the ghetto.  He died under the Nazi occupation.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2; Pinkes galitsye (Records of Galicia) (Buenos Aires, 1945), p. 335; Khayim Leyb Fuks, in Fun noentn over (New York) 3 (1957), p. 226; N. M. Gelber, Toldot hatenua hatsiyonit begalitsiya (History of the Zionist movement in Galicia) (Jerusalem, 1958), p. 699.

Khayim Leyb Fuks