YISROEL HALEVI FIGLER

YISROEL HALEVI FIGLER (December 8, 1866-July 4, 1930)

            The father of Borekh-Arn Figler, he was born in Bender, Bessarabia.  He was among the first activists in the Bessarabian “love of Zion” movement.  In 1893 he lived in the land of Israel, worked laying the first railroad tracks, before returning to Bessarabia.  In 1908 he moved to Canada and until 1910 worked as a teacher in a Talmud Torah and led services in a synagogue.  He contributed to Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal and was in charge of its division (using the pen name Y. Halevi): “Ankedotn in der alter heym” (Anecdotes in the old country).  He authored five volumes of Figlers yidishe shrayb-metode (Figler’s method for writings) (Montreal, 1917-1919), each twenty-four pages in length and published in a number of editions.  He was also the author of Der idish onfanger (The Yiddish beginner), “a new method of learning to read and write Yiddish” (Montreal, 1919), 31 pp.  He was also the author of four volumes of a method for teaching reading and writing Hebrew (Montreal, 1919), each twenty-four pages.  He died in Montreal.

Sources: B. Y. Goldshteyn, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (April 23, 1918); obituary notices in the Yiddish press.

Khayim Leyb Fuks