SHMUEL SHAPIRO

SHMUEL SHAPIRO (January 16, 1895-January 13, 1979)

            Born in Uman, Ukraine, he was a Hebrew and Yiddish writer.  He studied in religious elementary school and yeshiva, and later he attended a high school.  From 1912 he was living in Israel.  Between the two world wars, he was an emissary for “Heḥaluts” (The pioneer) in Romania and Poland.  From 1940 he was living in Mikve Yisrael [in central Israel] and later in Tel Aviv.  In 1911 he began publishing articles in Russian and Hebrew, later turning to Yiddish as well in: Haynt (Today) and Moment (Moment) in Warsaw; Erd un arbet (Land and work) and Unzer tsayt (Our time) in Kishinev; Folk un land (People and land) in Vilna; Folk un tsien (People and Zion) in Jerusalem; and elsewhere.  In pamphlet form: Bay farshlosene toyern, tsum yortsayt fun di geshehenishn in e. y. (At the locked gates, on the anniversary of death from the events in the land of Israel) (Bucherest, 1930), 14 pp.; Di ershte un der ershter (The first woman and first man) (Bucharest, 1933), 16 pp.; Unzere kolonizatorishe eksperimentn un di entshtehung fun “hekhaluts” (Our colonization experiments and the creation of “Heḥaluts”) (Bucharest: Hitaḥdut Tseire Tsiyon, 1934), 39 pp.; Ḥ. n. Bialik (Ḥ. N. Bialik) (Bucharest, 1935).  And two volumes in Hebrew: Perets smolenskin vekarl neter (Perets Smolenskin and Karl Netter) (1925), 45 pp.; Asher leoram halakhti (In whose light I went) (Tel Aviv, 1966), 424 pp.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Getzel Kressel, Leksikon hasifrut haivrit (Handbook of Hebrew literature), vol. 2 (Merḥavya, 1967); Yitskhok Paner, in Di goldene keyt (Tel Aviv) 69-70 (1969).

Ruvn Goldberg