HERSHL METALOVYETS

HERSHL METALOVYETS (August 18, 1894-April 26, 1980)

            His original name was Hersh-Leyb Bekerkunts, born in Warsaw.  He studied in religious elementary school.  He was active in the Polish Bund until 1921 and later in the Communist Party which expelled him in 1934.  He fled from Poland during WWII and in 1941 reached Montreal.  He began writing for Lebensfragen (Life issues) in Warsaw (1916).  He served as a member of the editorial board for: Radomer arbeter leben (Radom workers’ life) in 1920; Unzer gedank (Our idea) in Lodz (1922), put out by the Kombund (Communist Labor Bund), three issues; and Literarishe tribune (Literary tribune) in Lodz (1931-1932).  He later published reportage pieces, stories, and essays in Toronto’s Vokhnblat (Weekly newspaper) (until 1956).  Subsequent work appeared in Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal and Letste nayes (Latest news) in Tel Aviv.  In book form: Faktn un meynungen (Facts and opinions) (Lodz, 1922), 32 pp.; A veg in lebn, fragmentn fun an oytobyografye (A path in life, fragments of an autobiography) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1982), 2 vols.  Pen names: Hermes and Tataeski.  He died in Montreal.

Source: Information from Metalovyets’s wife in Montreal.

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 378-79.