YOYSEF ROYTBERG (1875-October 31, 1925)
He was born
in Belaya Tserkov (Bila Tserkva), Kiev district, descended from a Hassidic
family. He received a religious
education, studying also secular subject matter, and in 1902 he earned a
baccalaureate degree. In 1905 he settled
in Kiev where he was active in municipal and community institutions. In 1921 he moved to Warsaw, and from 1922 he
was living in Philadelphia. From 1895 he
was writing for Hebrew publications—Hamelits
(The advocate), Hazman (The times), Hatsofe (The spectator), and Hatsfira (The siren)—but far more for
Russian and Russian-Jewish journals. In
Yiddish he published articles on general and on Jewish matters in: Fraynd (Friend) (1903-1910), Petrograder togblat (Petrograd daily
newspaper), and for Kiev’s Der tekegraf
(The telegraph) and Di velt (The
world), as well as Moment (Moment), Haynt (Today), Dos folk (The people), and Der
vanderer (The immigrant), among other serials. In Philadelphia he was a regular contributor
to Di idishe velt (The Jewish world),
and in it he placed articles and novels, among them an adapted work from the
times of Catherine II and one on Shabbatai Zvi, among others. He translated into Russian bits from the work
of Y. L. Perets, Sholem-Aleichem, and Yoysef Opatoshu’s novel In poylishe velder (On Polish fields). He also brought out the pamphlet Shloyme gluskers tragedye (The tragedy
of Shloyme Glusker) (Kiev, 1910), concerning the innocent Jew hanged for the
murder of a Jewish family. He died in
Philadelphia.
Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Khayim Finkelshteyn, Haynt, a tsaytung bay yidn, 1908-1939 (Haynt [Today], a newspaper for Jews, 1908-1939) (Tel Aviv, 1978),
p. 207.
Berl Cohen
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