VOLF-LEYB RIBKO

VOLF-LEYB RIBKO (December 5, 1896-December 25, 1955)

            The author of stories, he was born in Ostrov-Mazovyetsk (Ostrów-Mazowiecka), Poland.  He attended religious elementary school and yeshivas.  In 1918 he moved to Vilna and in 1927 made his way to South Africa.  He worked as a teacher of Hebrew and history in the Vilna Jewish senior high school and later in Jewish schools in Johannesburg.  He debuted in print in 1929 with a story in Forverts (Forward) in New York.  He was a regular contributor to Der afrikaner (The African) (1928-1932), Afrikaner idishe tsaytung (African Jewish newspaper) from its founding in 1936, and the daily Dorem afrikaner shtime (Voice of South Africa) (1938, for eight months).  He also placed work in: Di idishe post (The Jewish mail) (1937), Foroys (Onward) (1937), Dorem afrike (South Africa), Dorem-afrikaner zamlbukh (South African anthology), and for Hebrew periodicals.  His work also appeared in Shmuel Rozhanski’s anthology Dorem afrike (Buenos Aires, 1971).  In book form: Yidishe geshikhte, mitlalter (Jewish history, middle ages), a textbook with E. Y. Goldshmidt (Vilna: Hirsh Mets, 1925), 229 pp.; Af di pleynen fun afrike, bilder un dertseylungen (On the plains of Africa, images and stories) (Johannesburg, 1961), 320 pp.  Pen name: V. Hirshzon.  He died in Johannesburg.

Dovid Volpe