LEYVI PAPYERNIKOV (LEVI PAPIERNIKOV)

LEYVI PAPYERNIKOV (LEVI PAPIERNIKOV) (June 20, 1900-May 5, 1985)

            The brother of Yoysef Papyernikov, he was born in Warsaw.  He studied in religious elementary school.  As a young man he engaged in business, later becoming a laborer in dyeing.  He first began writing in his early thirties, mostly short stories on social themes.  He published in Warsaw’s Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper).  When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, he moved with his family to Bialystok, and several weeks later they were deported to Siberia.  It was there that he lived out the war years.  In 1947 he came to Haifa, Israel, with his family, and shortly thereafter he went to work in the port.  He published work in: Lebns-fragn (Life issues) in Tel Aviv; Amerikaner (American) in New York; and other newspapers and journals.  In 1962 he published a novel entitled In gerangl fun lebn (In the struggle of life) serially in Letste nayes (Latest news) in Tel Aviv.  In book form, he published: In der nayer heym, dertseylungen (In the new home, stories) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1960), 176 pp.; Di mishpokhe yelnik, roman (The family Yelnik, a novel) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1962), 212 pp.; Bead eshnabi, sipurim ureshimot (Through my window, stories and notes), trans. Shamai Mendel (Tel Aviv: Menorah, 1969), 233 pp.; Fun haynt un amol (Of today and the past), stories (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1972), 199 pp.; Dertseylungen un skitsn (Stories and sketches) (Tel Aviv, 1979), 182 pp.  He died in Haifa.

Sources: Y. Gilboa, in Haarets (Tel Aviv) (March 1957); Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 3 (Montreal, 1958), p. 482; G. Vaysman, in Lebns-fragn (Tel Aviv) (December 1962); Y. Kornhendler, in Fraye arbeter-shtime (New York) (March 1, 1963); M. Krashnik, in Yorbukh (Haifa) (1965), pp. 71-78; M. Ḥalamish, in Mikan umikarov (From here and from nearby) (Merḥavya, 1966).

Leyb Vaserman

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 427.]