HILLEL SHARGEL

HILLEL SHARGEL (March 23, 1906-July 3, 1983)

            He was born in Khelm (Chełm), Poland.  He attended religious elementary school and yeshiva.  From his youth, he was associated with the left Labor Zionists.  In 1934 he moved to the land of Israel and worked there as a house painter.  He lived near Tel Aviv.  He debuted in print in 1933 with a poem in Di fraye yugnt (The free youth) in Warsaw, later publishing in: Nayvelt (new world), Unzers (Ours), Bleter far literatur (Pages for literature), the anthology Erets-yisroel-shriftn 1937 (Writings in the land of Israel, 1937), Letste nayes (Latest news), and Yisroel shtime (Voice of Israel)—in Tel Aviv; Inzikh (Introspective) and Hamshekh (Continuation)—New York.  His work also appeared in Arie Shamri’s Vortslen (Roots) (Tel Aviv, 1966), Yizker-bukh khelm (Remembrance vo1ume for Chełm) (Johannesburg, 1954), and Joseph Leftwich, The Golden Peacock: An Anthology of Yiddish Poetry (Cambridge, Mass., 1939).  He co-edited the journal Shtamen (Roots) in Tel Aviv (1936-1943).  He also penned literary critical articles.  In book form: A boym in fenster, lider (A tree in the window, poetry) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1975), 188 pp.; Fun zibetn likht, lider un poemes (From the seventh candle, poetry) (Tel Aviv: Yisroel-bukh, 1983), 204 pp.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Avrom Lis, in Folksblat (Tel Aviv) 10 (1975); F. Zigelboym, in Yisroel shtime (Tel Aviv) (July 2, 1975); Yisroel Emyot, in Forverts (New York) (July 13, 1975); Shimen Kants, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (September 18, 1975); Dov Sadan, in Yisroel Shtime (February 11, 1976)

Ruvn Goldberg

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 517.]