AVROM ROZENFELD

AVROM ROZENFELD (1884-1941/1942)

            He was the author of stories and a humorist, born in Opole, near Lublin.  He descended from a Hassidic household.  Until age eighteen he studied in religious elementary schools and the synagogue study chamber.  From 1906 he was living in Warsaw.  He began publishing in Unzer leben (Our life).  In Warsaw he published a series of joke sheets (under the pen name Bontshe Shvayg) and a series of holiday leaflets entitled Blumen (Flowers) (1912-1914).  From 1911 he was a regular contributor to Moment (Moment), for which he wrote stories, humorous sketches, and feature pieces, and he edited the section dubbed “Der krumer shpigl” (The crooked mirror).  In 1919 he edited the humorous weekly Der frayer foygl (The free bird) and in 1924 the one-off Tkiye gedole (Fanfare).  He published literary items in the Orthodox Dos yudishe vort (The Jewish word).  In book form, the stories: In’m rash (Amid the noise) (Warsaw: Unzer velt, 1921); and Di grine brik (The green bridge) (Warsaw: Sh. Yatshkovski, 1924), 191 pp.  He wrote the operetta Di froyen-gegner (The women’s adversary) and the comedy Khoyves (The duties)—both were staged in Warsaw and other cities.  His popular pen name was Bontshe.  He died in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 5 (Mexico City, 1966); B. Mark, Umgekumene shrayber fun di getos un lagern (Murdered writers from the ghettos and camps) (Warsaw, 1954), p. 55.

Dr. Volf Gliksman