AVROM-LEYB FUKS

AVROM-LEYB FUKS (1888-August 31, 1953)

            He was born in Kikyel (Kikół), near Lipno, Poland, the son of the Rabbi Duber, the Sampolner Gaon.  He studied in religious elementary school and yeshivas.  He graduated as an external student from the Plotsk (Płock) high school.  Over the years 1909-1913, he studied medicine and graduated from Heidelberg University and later from Kharkov University.  In 1914 he settled in Warsaw, and until the end of WWI he worked in a Jewish hospital.  Later, until 1922, he was director of the Jewish hospital in Zduńska Wola, and thereafter until 1939 he was living in Vlotslavek (Włocławek).  From his high school years, he was active in the Zionist movement.  He administered the Jewish student corporation in Germany until 1913.  From 1918 he was a member of the Zionist central committee in Poland, later a member of the Jewish Agency.  He served as chairman of the Jewish community council, was a member of the city council, and held other positions in Włocławek.  He was the founder of the local Jewish high school.  He debuted in print in Haynt (Today) in Warsaw (1916), and until WWII was a contributor—among other items, he published travel narratives of the land of Israel in 1934 under the title “Eyn oyg lakht un eyn oyg veynt” (One eye laughs and one eye cries).  He offered medical and more general articles to: Lodzher folksblat (Lodz people’s newspaper), Vlotslavker vokhnblat (Włocławek weekly newspaper), and Haolam (The world) in London-Jerusalem; and Nasz Przegląd (Our overview), Baderekh (On the road), and Tsienistishe bleter (Zionist pages) in Warsaw; among others (1939-1939.  In book form: Di kholere (Cholera) (Lodz, 1915), 24 pp.  He was a regular contributor to the weekly Vlotslavker shtime (Voice of Włocławek).  At the time of the outbreak of WWII, September 1939, he was mobilized as a doctor into the Polish army at the rank of major.  He was later interned in Hungary, and with help from “Merkaz hatsala” (Relief center) in Constantinople, he managed to get to the land of Israel in March 1940.  For a time he worked as a doctor in the Polish army located in Israel.  Later, until his death, he worked for the Jewish Agency.  He died in Jerusalem.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), see index; David Dor, in Zemanim (Tel Aviv) (October 2, 1953); K. F. Tkhorz, in Hatsofe (Jerusalem) (October 11, 1933); Kh. Finkelshteyn, in Fun noentn over (New York) 2 (1956), p. 212; Yitskhok Grinboym and Moyshe Kol, in Seyfer vlotslovek (Volume for Włocławek) (Jerusalem, 1967), pp. 355-58; Dr. Y. M. Biderman, in Seyfer vlotslovek, pp. 411-34.

Khayim Leyb Fuks