SHLOYME FUKSMAN

SHLOYME FUKSMAN (August 1, 1914-February 4, 1942)

            The brother of Yoysef-Moyshe Fuksman, he was born in Baranovitsh, Russia.  He studied in yeshivas and rounded out his education through self-study.  He lived in Vilna, Lodz, and Warsaw.  He was an activist and, until WWII, the secretary general of the “Poele Agudat Yisrael” (Workers for [ultra-Orthodox] Agudat Yisrael) in Poland and the author of its anthem.  From 1931 he was contributing to: Dos yudishe togblat (The Jewish daily newspaper) in Warsaw; Dos vort (The word) and Yidish far ale (Yiddish for everyone) in Vilna); and Nayer folksblat (New people’s newspaper), Beys-yankev zhurnal (Beys Yankev journal), and Idishe arbayter shtime (Voice of Jewish labor [also its co-editor]) in Lodz; among others.  Together with L. Vorobyovski, he wrote the folklore series, “Dos folk dertseylt” (The people recount), in the Baranovitsh press, fragments from “Dos baranovitsher sholem aleykhem bukh” (The Baranovitsh Sholem Aleichem book) in Foroys (Onward) in Warsaw (1939), and in Oktyabr (October) in Minsk (1940).  He prepared and published Pinkes fun der gezelshaft gmiles-khsodim in baranovitsh (Records of the interest-free loan society of Baranovitsh) (Baranovitsh, 1936), 74 pp. (other works in this series may be found in the YIVO archives).  He was later confined in the Baranovitsh ghetto.  He was shot by the Germans and went to his death singing “Am yisroel ḥai” (The people of Israel lives!), together with a group of religious Jews, during the execution of Shushan Purim in 1942.

Sources: YIVO archives (New York); Foroys (Warsaw) (March 17, 1939); Yivo-biblyografye, 1925-1941 (YIVO bibliography, 1925-1941) (New York, 1943), see index; Baranovits, seyfer zikorn (Remembrance volume for Baranovitsh) (Tel Aviv, 1953), p. 303; M. Unger, in Tog (New York) (April 30, 1950); Moyshe Prager, in Fun noentn over (New York) 2 (1956), p. 526.

Khayim Leyb Fuks