ALEKSANDER FARBO

ALEKSANDER FARBO (July 23, 1888-1940)

            The adopted name of Sander-Zishe Farber, he was born in Kalushin (Kałuszyn), Warsaw district.  He attended religious elementary school and the yeshiva of Novominsk.  He worked as a teacher for a time.  He debuted in print with a poem in 1911 in Moment (Moment) in Warsaw; later, from time to time, he published poems in various publications.  His drama Benye kendzher (Benye Kendzher), concerning the life of the underworld, was staged in 1921 in Warsaw’s “Tsentral” (Central) theater.  He edited an entire series of collections for the publisher of Moment.  He brought out a couple of issues of the biweekly Unzer zhurnal (Our journal) in 1913—also an occasional journal of literature and criticism entitled Mayn shtender (My stance), which he wrote entirely on his own.  He was a proofreader for Haynt (Today).  Prior to the outbreak of WWII, he became very religious and wrote a mystical philosophical work which was never published.  He died in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940; according to another source, he died in Warsaw on March 29, 1940.  In book form: Durkh glants un nebl, lider-zamlung (Through radiance and fog, poetry collection) (Warsaw, 1917), 62 pp., with a preface by Noyekh Pryłucki; Benye kendzher, drame in dray aktn (Benye Kendzher, a play in three acts) (Warsaw: Vanderer, 1923), 78 pp.; Di velt geyt unter, drame in dray aktn (The world goes under, a play in three acts) (Warsaw: Koykhes, 1929), 87 pp., concerning the striving of modern women to free themselves all the more from their duties as wives and mothers; Zeks un draysik konkurs noveln un dertseylungen (Thirty-sixth context of novels and stories), with Nakhmen Mifelev and others (Warsaw, 1929).  He also published a number of novels in various newspapers.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Dr. R. Feldshuh, Yidishe gezelshaftlekher leksikon (Jewish community handbook), vol. 1 (Warsaw, 1939); D. Tsharni (Daniel Charney), in Tsukunft (New York) (January 1943); M. Mozes, in Der poylisher yid, yearbook (1944); Elkhonen Tsaytlin, In a literarisher shtub (In a literary home) (Buenos Aires, 1946), pp. 51, 76, 78; Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 1 (Montreal, 1945), pp. 191-95; Y. Papyernikov, Heymishe un noente, demonungen (Familiar and close at hand, remembrances) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1958), pp. 248-50; Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 4 (New York, 1963), pp. 3114-15; Y. Varshavski [Bashevis], in Forverts (New York) (April 16, 1965).

Leyb Vaserman