MEYER-VOLF NYESTEMPOVER

MEYER-VOLF NYESTEMPOVER (1902-January 1942)

            He was born in Pultusk (Pułtusk), Warsaw district, Poland.  He studied in religious elementary schools and yeshivas; in 1925 he married and lived until WWII in Ostrov-Mazovyetsk (Ostrów-Mazowiecka).  A scholar with rabbinic ordination, he wished, however, not to make a living as a rabbi and instead made a difficult living from incidental work.  He was active in “Poele Agudat Yisrael” (Workers for [ultra-Orthodox] Agudat Yisrael).  Under the influence of Y. Emyot, he began writing initially Hebrew poetry, later reportage pieces and articles.  In 1931 he debuted in print with a series of descriptions of Jewish life in Polish towns for Ortodoksishe yugend-bleter (Orthodox youth sheets) in Warsaw, and later he contributed to: Dos yudishe togblat (The Jewish daily newspaper) in Warsaw; Der yudisher arbayter (The Jewish worker), Di yudishe shtime (The Jewish voice), and Beys-yankev zhurnal (Beys Yankev journal) in Lodz.  He also published in Hebrew in: Haderekh (The pathway), Darkhenu (Our way), and Deglanu (Our banner) in Warsaw; Dos vort (The word) in Vilna; and Idishe shtime (Jewish voice) in Cracow; among others.  He translated the well-known work of Yedaya Hapenini, Mivḥar hapenini (Selection from the dispenser of pearls [= Yedaya ben Avraham Bedersi, ca. 1270-ca. 1340]), into a popular Yiddish in rhyming verse, with an introduction (Premishle, 1938), 64 pp.  When the Germans entered Ostrów-Mazowiecka, he fled to the Russian-occupied zone.  He lived for a time in Slonim and later was confined in the Lakhve ghetto; from there the Nazis led him to the collection point and shot him.

Sources: Yisroel Emyot, in Beys-yankev zhurnal (Lodz) (March 1939); information from Rabbi Dr. M. Shvartzman in Winnipeg, Canada, and from Y. Emyot in Rochester, New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks