ARN ERLIKH

ARN ERLIKH (1903-October 1942)

            He was born in Gline (Glina), eastern Galicia.  He was a pupil of Rabbi Meir Shapiro at Yeshivat Ḥakhme Lublin (Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva).  Later he studied humanities and literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  In 1934 he returned to Poland and attended the Warsaw rabbinical seminary, while at the same time becoming active in Tseire Mizraḥi (Mizrachi youth).  He was a member of the center “Tora veavoda” (Torah and belief) in Poland.  From 1922 he was publishing poems, articles, and essays on literature and art in: Ortodoksishe yugnt bleter (Orthodox youth sheets), Yudishes tageblat (Jewish daily newspaper), Di idishe shtime (The Jewish voice), and Hamizraḥi (The Mizrachi)—in Warsaw; Der morgen (The morning), Yavne (Yavne), Hasolel (The paver), Mizraḥi (Mizrachi), Alim (Leaves), and Ahalnu (Our tent)—in Lemberg; Idishe arbeter-shtime (Voice of Jewish labor), Der idishe arbayter (The Jewish worker), and Beys yankev zhurnal (Beys-Yankev journal); among others.  When the Nazis occupied Lemberg, he was arrested.  He was later confined in the Lemberg ghetto and there he died.

Sources: Khanekh Halpern, Megiles gline (The book of Glina) (New York, 1950); Entsiklopedya shel hatsiyonut hadatit (Encyclopedia of religious Zionism), vol. A-D (Jerusalem: Mosad ha-Rav Kuk, 1959), pp. 189-90.

Khayim Leyb Fuks