AVROM SHULMAN

AVROM SHULMAN (b. June 20, 1915)

            He was born in Warsaw.  He graduated in 1933 from high school in Warsaw and in 1935 from the local senior school for journalists.  During WWII he fled Warsaw and in 1940 made his way to Australia.  He lived in Melbourne until 1950 and studied (1941-1943) at university there.  He spent the period 1950-1960 in France, and from 1961 he was in New York.  He began publishing poetry in Polish, later writing critical essays and mainly feature pieces in the Yiddish newspapers and periodicals of Warsaw, Paris, and New York.  He published and edited the monthly Oyfboy (Reconstruction) and co-edited Tsushteyer (Contribution)—both in Melbourne.  He also wrote the musical comedies: Di kluge layt fun khelm (The wise people of Chełm), Benyomen hashlishi (Benjamin III), Papenyu, Bintl briv (Batch of letters) which appeared in English as well, and a new version of Osip Dimov’s Bronks ekspres (Bronx express).  His books include: Panye sendzho (Panie sędzio [Mr. Judge]) (Warsaw, 1938), 126 pp.—from the series “Farn grinem tish” (At the green table); Geshikhte fun yidishn yishev in balarat (History of the Jewish community of Ballarat) (Melbourne: YIVO division, 1946), 38 pp.; Gelekhter in der nakht, humoreskes un felyetonen (Laughter at night, humorous sketches and feuilletons) (Paris, 1953), 172 pp.; Tsvishn shvarts un vays, eseyen un felyetonen (Between black and white, essays and feuilletons) (Paris: Vayter, 1955), 175 pp.; Der himl iz nokh alts far di geter, notitsn fun rayzes (After all, heaven is for the gods, notes and travels) (Paris: Tsiko, 1960), 211 pp.; Yitskhok bashevis-zinger (Issac Bashevis Singer) (New York, 1978), 9 pp.  In more recent years, he published books in English, such as: The Old Country (New York: Scribner, 1974), 210 pp.; The New Country (New York: Scribner, 1977), 208 pp.; Coming Home to Zion: A Pictorial History of Pre-Israel Palestine (Garden City: Doubleday, 1979), 236 pp.  His pen names: A. Yakubzon and Idem.

Berl Cohen