BEN-TSIEN TSALEVITSH

BEN-TSIEN TSALEVITSH (1883-May 6, 1962)

            He was born in Bialystok, Poland, into the family of a baker.  He attended religious elementary school.  From 1910 he was working in a bakery, and from his early youth he was a Bundist.  For his revolutionary activities, he was imprisoned in Bialystok in 1914 and then exiled to Novozipovke (?), Chernigov (Chernihiv) Province.  After being freed, he took part in the Russian Revolution, and in 1918 he returned to Bialystok.  In the 1920s he made aliya to the land of Israel and founded a trade union of bakers with Histadrut (Federation of Labor).  He contributed to the cultural work of “Brit Avoda” (Covenant of labor).  He founded the Franz Kurski Library and the Bundist afternoon school for Yiddish.  He was one of the leading Bundist figures in the Yishuv in Israel.  He placed articles in: Di folks-tsaytung (The people’s newspaper) and Historisher zamlbukh (Historical anthology) in Warsaw; Forverts (Forward) and Byalistoker shtime (Voice of Bialystok) in New York; and Letste nayes (Latest news) and Lebns-fragn (Life issues) in Tel Aviv.  For nearly two decades, he was engaged in distributing Yiddish books in Israel.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Z. Segalovitsh, in Forverts (New York) (August 4, 1948); Y. Pat, in Di shtime (Mexico City) (November 20, 1948); Pat, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (July 28, 1950); Dr. E. Pat, Briv keyn medines-yisroel (Letters to the state of Israel) (Tel Aviv, 1955), p. 186; Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 3 (Montreal, 1958), pp. 348-49; Y. Yude Zakharyash, in Byalistoker shtime (New York) (September 1962).

Yankev Kahan