SHAPSE KESHEV

SHAPSE KESHEV (September 23, 1898-late September 1981)

            A descendant of a Hassidic family, he was born with the surname Klugman in Pintshev (Pińczów), near Kielce.  He received both a Jewish and a general education.  From 1925 he was working in the Warsaw office of the Jewish National Fund.  During WWII, he was confined in the Kovno ghetto.  After the war he was in refugee camps in Germany.  From 1948 he was living in Israel.  From 1926 he contributed correspondence pieces and journalistic articles to the Yiddish and Hebrew press: Davar (Word) (until 1964, he was an internal contributor), Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter), Tsukunft (Future), Folk un velt (People and world), and Di goldene keyt (The golden chain), among others.  He wrote many pamphlets as well on contemporary themes—among them, we should note: Katson letevaḥ (Like sheep to the slaughter) about the Holocaust, which appeared in numerous editions and translations; in Yiddish as Vi shof tsu der shkhite (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1962), 71 pp., second edition (Tel Aviv, 1966), 85 pp.  He translated David Ben Gurion by Robert St. George (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1959/1960), 404 pp.  His pen names included: K. Shabtai, Shabta Teva, Shabse Khokhem, Sh. Yupiter, Tuvye Shekel, and A. Yisroeli.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Getzel Kressel, Leksikon hasifrut haivrit (Handbook of Hebrew literature), vol. 2 (Merḥavya, 1967); Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 3 (Montreal, 1958).

Ruvn Goldberg