AVROM REVUTSKI

AVROM REVUTSKI (February 12, 1889-February 8, 1946)

            He was born in Smile, Kiev district, into a rabbinical family.  Until age ten he was raised in Rehovot in the land of Israel, where his father settled in 1889.  He returned to the Russian empire and in 1907 graduated from a high school in Akerman, Bessarabia.  Over the years 1908-1911, he studied at the Vilna technical school, and in 1916 he graduated from the physics and mathematics department of Odessa University.  On his own he studied foreign languages and economic science.  Under the influence of Ber Borokhov, he joined the Labor Zionist movement and later, after it split, became one of the leaders and publicists of the left Labor Zionists (also using the pen name Shlimovitsh).  In December 1917, he became Moyshe Zilberfarb’s assistant in the Ministry of Jewish Affairs in Ukraine, and in January-February 1919 he became the Jewish minister for the Ukrainian directorate.  In March 1919 he returned to Israel, leaving for Berlin in 1922 and from 1924 living in the United States.

            He began his journalistic work in 1908 in Russian and later wrote for numerous Russian journals and newspapers.  He also contributed to Hebrew and German periodicals.  He debuted in Yiddish in 1909 in the illegal organ of the Russian Labor Zionists, Dos fraye vort (The free word), published in Lemberg and edited in Vienna.  He also placed work in: Unzer tsayt (Our time) in Vilna (1911-1912); Dos vort (The word) and Unzer vort (Our word) in St. Petersburg (1914); Moment (Moment) and Haynt (Today) in Warsaw; Fraynd (Friend); Unzer lebn (Our life) in Odessa (1915-1917); Der sotsyal-demokrat (The social democrat) (1917) and Dos naye lebn (The new life) in Kiev (1917-1918); the monthly Kamf (Struggle) in Berlin (1923); the daily Tsayt (Times) in New York (1920-1922); Gerekhtikeyt (Justice); and Proletarishe shtime (Proletarian voice); among others.  From 1924 he was a regular contributor to Morgn zhurnal (Morning journal) in New York, in which he wrote primarily about international politics, as well as journalistic piece under the pseudonym Dr. Shteynfeld.  In Tsukunft (Future) in New York, he published research on the Jewish colonization, the social forms of Palestinian colonization, and problems of socialism.  His books and pamphlets include: Der palestiner arbayter-fond (The Palestinian labor fund) (Cracow, 1910), 16 pp.; Der idisher proletariat un velt-sholem (The Jewish proletariat and world peace) (Odessa: Dos naye lebn, 1918), 16 pp.; Vos farlangen mir fun di munitsipaliteten (What we need from the municipalities) (Kiev-Warsaw, 1919), 16 pp.; Di demokratishe yudishe kehile (The democratic Jewish community) (Struj, 1919), 16 pp.; Fun balfur biz samyuel (From Balfour to Samuel) (Warsaw: Arbayter-heym, 1921), 48 pp., Hebrew version (Yafo, 1922); In di shvere teg af ukrayine, zikhroynes fun a yidishn minister (In the difficult days in Ukraine, memoirs of a Jewish minister) (Berlin: Yidisher literarisher farlag, 1924), 317 pp.; Der bruder-krig in di idishe yunyons, der veg tsu banayung un sholem (The fraternal war in the Jewish unions, the route to renewal and peace) (New York: Proletarisher gedank, 1927), 31 pp.; Dos naye erets-yisroel (The new land of Israel) (Warsaw: Literarishe bleter, 1936), 406 pp.; Tsuteylung oder tsienizm, der goyrl fun erets-yisroel un di idishe natsyonale heym (Appropriation or Zionism, the fate of the land of Israel and the Jewish national home) (New York, 1938), 32 pp.; Erets-yisroel un di idishe noyt (Israel and Jewish hardship) (New York: Jewish National Labor Alliance, 1939), 32 pp.; Idn in erets-yisroel (Jewish in the land of Israel) (New York: Sharon, 1947), 456 pp.  A number of his pamphlets appeared in English and French as well.  He died in Yonkers, New York.

Revusky and title page of his 1947 book, Idn in erets-yisroel

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Y. Khaykin, in Undzer bukh (New York) 3 (1926); Shloyme Grodzenski, Geklibene shriftn (Selected writings) (Tel Aviv, 1974); Elkana Margalit, Anatomiya shel smol, poale-tsiyon beerets yisroel, 1919-1946 (Anatomy of the left, Labor Zionism in the land of Israel, 1919-1946) (Tel Aviv, 1976), see index; Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Yekhezkl Lifshits