LEYZER RUBINSHTEYN

LEYZER RUBINSHTEYN (b. June 8, 1917)

            The author of stories and a translator, he was born in Sokolov-Podlyask (Sokołów Podlaski), Poland.  He attended religious elementary school and public school, and he graduated from the Tachkemoni school in Bialystok.  He spent WWII in the Soviet Union.  After the war he was in Poland, active in the “Tora veavoda” (Torah and belief) movement, and later he was in Paris before moving to Israel in 1949.  In Paris he edited the weekly newspaper Unzer veg (Our way).  In Israel he placed stories, articles, and translations in: Letste nayes (Latest news), Hatsofe (The spectator), and Maariv (Evening), among others.  His work also appeared in: Almanakh fun di yidishe shrayber in yisroel (Almanac of Yiddish writers in Israel) (Tel Aviv, 1967); and Mordekhai Ḥalamish, Mikan umikarov, antologya shel sipure yidish beerets yisrael (From near and from far away, anthology of stories in Yiddish in Israel) (Merḥavya, 1966).  He gained the most merit in the field of Yiddish literature for his translations from Hebrew into Yiddish, for which he was awarded several prizes.  These translations include: Yitsḥak Rafael, Fun di kvaln funem khsidishn folklor (On the sources of Hassidic folklore [original: Mimaayanot hafolklor haḥasidi]) (Paris: Unzer veg, 1949), 158 pp.; Avraham Krinitsi, Mit di eygene tsen finger (With my own ten fingers [original: Beeser etsbaotai]) (Tel Aviv: Letste nayes, 1957), 253 pp.; Sh. Y. Agnon, A poshete mayse (A simple story [original: Sipur pashut]) (New York: Der kval, 1958), 291 pp.; Avraham Kariv, Mayn heymland lite (My homeland Lithuania [original: Lita mekhorati]) (Tel Aviv: Goldene keyt, 1962), 111 pp., parallel Hebrew text and Yiddish translation; Sh. Y. Agnon, Shriftn (Writings) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1969), 608 pp.  He had prepared for publication translation of works by Ḥaim Hazaz, Yehuda Burla, and others.  Dov Sadan considered Rubinshteyn to be a translator in the third rank after Yehoash and Y. Y. Shvarts.

Sources: Shloyme Bikl, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (February 3, 1963); Mortkhe Tsanin, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (May 2, 1969); Shmuel Rozhanski, in Idishe tsaytung (Buenos Aires) (February 27, 1970); Arn Tsaytlin, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (March 6, 1970).

Ruvn Goldberg