TSEMEKH KOPELZON

TSEMEKH KOPELZON (b. February 21, 1869)

            He was born in Vilna.  He was among the Bundist leaders, known by his illegal name Timofey.  In 1905 he founded in Vilna the Bundist publishing house of Di velt (The world).  In 1908 he settled in New York.  He wrote several articles in the illegal Bundist Arbayter-shtime (Workers’ voice), as well as in Forverts (Forward) and Naye velt (New world).  On the history of the Jewish labor movement, his memoirs are very interesting: in the anthologies Dos revolutsyonere rusland (Revolutionary Russia) (New York, 1917) and Arbeter-luekh (Workers’ calendar) (Warsaw, 1922).  He became a Communist and in late 1923 set out for Soviet Russia.  He was killed in an automobile accident (roughly early 1930s).

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; A. Lyesin, Zikhroynes un bilder (Memories and images) (New York: L. M. Shteyn Folks-biblyotek, 1954), pp. 262-65; Y. Sh. Herts, Di geshikhte fun bund (History of the Bund) (New York, 1960), pp. 58, 59, 95ff; Historishe shriftn (Vilna-Paris) (1939), see index; Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Berl Cohen