Sunday 10 November 2019

ABE-HILEL SHKOLNIK (ABBA HILLEL SKOLNIK)


ABE-HILEL SHKOLNIK (ABBA HILLEL SKOLNIK) (February 14, 1880-September 14, 1969)
            He was born in Plotl (Plotele, Plateliai), Lithuania.  His Father was a rabbi in the town for forty-five years.  From ages eleven to fourteen, he attended yeshivas, learned the trade of ritual slaughterer, and moved to Libave (Liepāja).  In 1912 he settled in Chicago.  For a time he took up work as a peddler.  He tried writing stories and poetry, but at the advice of Sholem-Aleichem, he turned his attention mainly to aphorisms which he published from 1910 in: Dos vort (The word), Haynt (Today), Moment (Moment), Ashmeday (Asmodeus) in Berlin, various holiday sheets in Russia and Poland; and later in American Yiddish serials, such as Der groyser kundes (The great prankster), Der kibitzer (The kibitzer), Dos vort, Kunst-fraynd (Friend of art), Shikago (Chicago), Idisher kuryer (Jewish courier), and Keneder odler (Canadian eagle.  He published thousands of aphorisms.  In book form: Aforizmen (Aphorisms) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1974), 255 pp.  He died in Chicago.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; D. Groybard, in Forverts (New York) (October 11, 1974).
Ruvn Goldberg


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