ESTHER VEVYORKE

ESTHER VEVYORKE

    She was the wife of Avrom Vevyorke and the sister of the Soviet Yiddish writer Noyekh Lurye. She translated from German into Yiddish: In shotn fun elektrishn shtul (In the shadow of the electric chair [original: Im Schatten des elektrischen Stuhls]) by Hermynia Zur Mühlen (Kiev, 1932), 62 pp., and carried on other literary work in Riga.  Her fate after 1948 remains unknown.

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 249.

ZISI VAYTSMAN

ZISI VAYTSMAN (b. 1946)

            He is a poet, born in Belz, Bessarabia, into the family of a carpenter. The language in his home growing up was Yiddish. As there were no Jewish schools at that time, he mastered reading and writing Yiddish on his own. After graduating from a Russian school, he studied in a construction technicum from which he graduated in 1967. He began to write poetry in childhood, and his first creations were published in the newspaper Birobidzhaner shtern (Birobidzhan star), while he was serving in the army in the Far East. He was the deputy to the commander of a military division, and after demobilization he settled in the city of Samara, where he was active in Jewish life of the local community. In the 1970s and 1980s, he published in Sovetish heymland (Soviet homeland) in Moscow. Since May 2007, he has been living in Israel.

Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), p. 140.

ARL HOFSHTEYN

ARL HOFSHTEYN (1918-1941)

            Although precise information about his life remains unknown, he was a poet. According to his poems, which he placed in the newspaper Birobidzhaner shtern (Birobidzhan star) and other serial publications, one can assume that came from Ukraine. In the second half of the 1930s, he lived in Birobidzhan, graduated from middle school and later the pedagogical technicum there, and was an editor of the regional Birobidzhan radio committee where he ran the broadcasts for children. Among the young Birobidzhan poets, he was the youngest, and he was often seen among the students. From the memoirs of Birobidzhan writers, he was a darling of the young, for whom he would frequently provide lessons. When WWII broke out, he left for the front. He perished on the battlefield in 1941 at the age of twenty-three. He was never able to publish a book.

            His published writing include: “Dem bruders biks un shverd” (The brother’s gun and sword), a poetry cycle in the collection Lire (Lyre) (Moscow: Sovetski pisatel, 1985).

Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), pp. 113-14.

MARK HOKHBERG

MARK HOKHBERG

            He was a prose author. Precise biographical information remains unknown. In the first years after the Revolution, he lived in Kharkov, Ukraine, and he contributed stories to the literary anthology Kunst-ring, literarish-kinstlerisher almanakh (Art circle, literary-artistic anthology) (Kharkov: Idish, 1917 and 1919).

            His work includes: Dos goldene ringele, a maysele (The little golden ring, a tale), illustrated by Ed. Shteynberg (Kharkov: Pedagogisher farlag, 1919), 30 pp.

Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), p. 107.

MOYSHE DUBINSKY

MOYSHE DUBINSKY (1900-1983)

            A linguist and translator, he was born in the city of Belotserkov, Ukraine. In his youth he was a teacher of Yiddish language and literature. In 1931 he graduated from the Jewish division of the Moscow Pedagogical Institute. He worked in Kiev as an editor in the Yiddish section of the Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities. He translated numerous works from Russian into Ukrainian and Yiddish. For the six-volume edition of Sholem-Aleichem’s works (Moscow, 1959-1961), he translated into Russian Moshkele ganef (Moshkele the thief) and Bilder fun berditshever gas (Pictures from a street in Berdichev). He dedicated a series of articles to issues of Yiddish linguistics.

Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), p. 98.

HERSHL DUBINSKY

HERSHL DUBINSKY (1915-1941)

            He was a poet who lived in Kiev. He began publishing poetry in Yiddish newspapers and journals in Ukraine. The poems were naïvely self-confident, as was true of the work of many young poets who grew up in an atmosphere of paeans to the rulers in the land of the Communist Party and the “great leader” Stalin. In 1939 he published his first and only volume of poetry; he was preparing another, but it never saw the light of day. The war broke out, the twenty-six-year-old poet volunteered for service in the army, he took part in the battles to defend his hometown of Kiev, and there he died.

            His work included: Mut un libshaft (Courage and love), poetry (Kiev: State Publishers for National Minorities, 1939), 109 pp.; “Alts vet ersht zayn” (Everything will be first), a cycle of poems in the collection Lire (Lyre) (Moscow: Sovetski pisatel, 1985).

Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), p. 98.

MOYSHE DUBILET

MOYSHE DUBILET (1897- September 18, 1941)

            He was a literary critic and teacher, born in the town of Dmitrovke (Dmytrivka), Ukraine, into a poor family. In his youth he came to Odessa, where he studied in teachers’ training courses and simultaneously worked as a private tutor. During the civil war, he served in the Red Army. After demobilization he returned to Odessa and graduated from the Jewish division of the Pedagogical Institute for People’s Education. Over the course of a number of years, he worked as a teacher of language and literature and was a methodologist in Odessa Jewish schools. In the latter half of the 1920s, he published in the Yiddish press articles on methods of teaching Yiddish literature. From1933 he was a researcher in the Kiev Institute for Jewish Culture at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and from 1938 to 1941 he was a senior scholarly worker at the same institute then known as the “cabinet.” Over the course of the 1930s, he published in newspapers and journals articles on the Yiddish classics and on the creative work of Soviet Yiddish writers. In 1941 he went with the army to the war front, and there he fell in the fighting on September 18, 1941.

            His work included: Literarishe khrestomatye farn 8tn klas fun der mitlshul (Literature reader for the eighth class of middle school) (Kharkov-Kiev: State Publishers for National Minorities, 1940), 171 pp.

Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), pp. 97-98.

AVROM DOBRINKI

AVROM DOBRINKI (1888-1982)

            A literary scholar, critic, and bibliographer, he was born in Berdichev, Ukraine, where he worked as a bookkeeper and at the same time concerned himself with researching Yiddish literature. He first published an article in 1941 on the creative work of the poet Shifre Kholodenko in the Kiev monthly journal Sovetishe literatur (Soviet literature) 1 (1941).  After the war, he published in the Warsaw newspaper Folks-shtime (Voice of the people) articles on the work of the poets Shike Driz and Dovid Bromberg. He also placed work in the Moscow journal Sovetish heymland (Soviet homeland) on the Yiddish poetry in the press of the first revolutionary years, on the first creative work of the writer Noyekh Lurye, and on Meyer Alberton’s work. He died in Moscow.

Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), pp. 96-97.

KHAYIM DOBIN

KHAYIM DOBIN (1901-1977)

            He was the son of Shimen Dobin, known as Khemele, and Sholem-Aleichem too called him by this pet name in a letter to his father Shimen. He also made contributions to Yiddish culture: in the latter half of the 1920s, he was the editor of record of the Moscow journal Yungvald (Young forest) and of the children’s serials Pyoner (Pioneer) and Fraynd (Friend). He was later editor of the Russian journal Literaturnyi Leningrad (Literary Leningrad), and he published several scholarly book on literature.

Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), p. 96.

LEYB GORNSHTEYN

LEYB GORNSHTEYN (b. 1917)

            He was a poet, born in the town of Polone (Pollone), Ukraine. He graduated from the local Jewish secondary school and went on to study at the Kiev, and later the Odessa, Pedagogical Institute. He received a diploma for a teacher and worked as one for a number of years in the field of Yiddish language and literature. From 1939, he was a language editor (stylist) for the Yiddish newspaper Der shtern (The star) in Kiev. He began writing poetry while still a child. He published his first poems in the Kharkov Yiddish newspapers Zay greyt (Get ready!) and Yunge gvardye (Young guard), and later he placed poems and essays in Der shtern. In 1932 he was a delegate to the All-Ukrainian Conference of Children Correspondents which took place in Kharkov. In subsequent years, he published poems and essays in the Yiddish press in Kiev, Moscow, and Birobidzhan. At the start of WWII, he was evacuated to Tashkent, where he published essays and literary treatments in the Uzbeki and Russian press. In the literary collection Tsum zig (To victory), which was compiled during the war and edited by Perets Markish (published by Der emes publishing house in 1944), he was represented by a poem. According to certain accounts, he became mentally ill, and he died in a Tashkent neurological clinic.

Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), pp. 75-76.