Tuesday 13 March 2018

RIFOEL SUFERMAN


RIFOEL SUFERMAN (September 2, 1879-April 23, 1956)
            He was born in Kanali, Uman district, Ukraine, into a rabbinical family.  He studied in religious elementary school and yeshivas.  In 1894 he moved to Galicia, graduated from a Polish high school, and studied at the University of Vienna.  He was a student of Professor Yitskhok Khayes and one of his collaborators.  He cofounded the Zion Association in Lemberg.  For many years he was a teacher and chairman of the Jewish teachers’ union in the former Austro-Hungarian empire.  In 1912 he came to the land of Israel, worked as a teacher in Tsfat (Safed), Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv.  Over the years 1922-1928, he was a member of the Tel Aviv city council.  He wrote for: Hakarmel (The Carmel) in 1898 and for Togblat (Daily newspaper) from 1904 to 1912—in Lemberg; for Bader’s and Frostik’s Folks-kalenders (People’s calendars); in the Yiddish weekly Haivri (The Jew) (1911-1912) for which he also served as editor, in Bród; and in Hamagid (The preacher), Hamitspe (The watchtower), Haolam (The world) in Berlin-London, and in German for Die Welt (The world) in Vienna.  He was also the author of a work in Hebrew on the book of Amos, written with Tsvi Sharfshteyn.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Source: Sefer haishim (Biographical dictionary) (Tel Aviv, 1937), pp. 365-66; N. M. Gelber, Toldot hatenua hatsiyonit begalitsiya (History of the Zionist movement in Galicia), vols. 1 and 2 (Jerusalem, 1958), see index; obituary notices in the Israeli press (April 24 and 25, 1956).
Khayim Leyb Fuks


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