YOYSEF ERLIKH (JOSEPH ERLICH)

YOYSEF ERLIKH (JOSEPH ERLICH) (1907-November 13, 1982)

            He was born in Volbrom (Wolbrom), Kielce district, Poland.  As for his education, he attended religious elementary school and a seven-class Polish public school, and he studied on his own.  Until 1933 he was living in Poland, an active leader in the pioneer and youth movement in the Kielce region.  He organized training courses for prospective agricultural settlers in the land of Israel.  From 1933 he was in Israel.  He worked on the land and in construction enterprises.  He began writing for Y. M. Vaysenberg’s Inzer hofening (Our hope) in Warsaw in 1926, and later he contributed sketches and stories to: Keltser shtime (Voice of Kielce), Keltser-rademer lebn (Kielce-Radom life), and Naye folksblat (New people’s newspaper) in Lodz; Dos naye lebn (The new life) in Bialystok; and Heymish (Familiar), Letste nayes (Latest news), and Davar (Word) in Tel Aviv; among others.  A number of his stories were also published in Omer (Speech) and Moznaim (Balance), among others, in Tel Aviv.  In Sefer volbrom (Volume for Wolbrom) (Tel Aviv, 1964), he published on sixteen bilingual pages the piece “Volbrom in mayne oygn” (Wolbrom in my eyes) which offers a cross section of the destruction of the former Jewish life in Polish towns.  In book form: Haharariyim (The mountainous terrain) (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1961), 168 pp., translated into Hebrew by A. D. Shapir; Volblom (Wolblom) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1963), 93 pp., translated into Hebrew by S. Mendl on facing pages with the Yiddish, preface by Dov Sadan; Shabes (The Sabbath) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1970), 234 pp. (Hebrew, English, French, and Czech translations); Trit in gesl (Step in the alley) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1972), 271 pp.; Afn rand fun midber, noveln (On the edge of the desert, stories) (Tel Aviv: Hemenorah, 1977), 126 pp.; Doyer, roman (Duration, a novel) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1978), 233 pp.; Gezamlte shriftn (Collected writings) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1982)—5 vols.: (1) Der onheyb (The beginning), 442 pp.; (2) Tol un barg (Valley and mountain), 404 pp.; (3) Bay zikh (On one’s own), 477 pp.; (4) Af eygns (On one’s own), 360 pp.; (5) Dos shtetl (The town), 383 pp., with a preface by Dov Sadan—and Der raykher dalfn, roman (The wealthy poor man, a novel) (Tel Aviv: Yisroel-bukh, 1984), 208 pp.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), see index; Dov Sadan, Avne miftan, masot al sofre yidish (Milestones, essays on Yiddish writers), vol. 1 (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1961), pp. 190-91; Moshe Giura, in Moznaim (Tel Aviv) (Shevat [= January-February] 1962); Y. A. Zaydman, in Leshonenu (Jerusalem) (Marḥeshvan [= October-November] 1962); Dr. Sh. Margoshes, in Tog (New York) (January 11, 1964); M. Shenderay, in Yidishe tsaytung (Buenos Aires) (January 12, 1964).

Khayim Leyb Fuks

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 420.]