YITSKHOK BERKMAN

YITSKHOK BERKMAN

His family came from Lithuania.  He lived in Lodz and Warsaw.  He was a Hebrew-Yiddish writer, pedagogue, and teacher, and he was connected with the early Zionists (Ḥoveve-tsiyon) in Lodz.  In the years 1910-1911 he was in Palestine, and later he was back in Lodz where he lived until 1922—thereafter, in Warsaw where he was a Zionist activist and a teacher in a Hebrew high school.  He wrote Hebrew school textbooks and staged stories for children.  In 1910 he published in Lodzher tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper) “Mayn rayze kin erets yisroel” (My trip to Palestine), chapters from a diary, which was one of the first Palestine travel narratives in the Yiddish press.  He later wrote about education in Lodzher tageblat, Folksblat (People’s newspaper), and Der yidisher zhurnalist (The Jewish journalist) in Lodz (1919), among others.  He was the author of: Tal boker (Dew of morning), a Hebrew-language textbook (Warsaw, 1908), 116 pp.; Moshe (Moses), a biblical drama for children in four acts (Lemberg, 1919), 70 pp.  He also published, together with Yitskhok Katsenelson, the Hebrew-language textbook Sefat ami (The language of my people) (Warsaw, 1913/1914), 114 pp.; Tsafirim (Zephyrs) (Warsaw, 1925), 173 pp.; and in Yiddish, Ilustrirte khumesh (Illustrated Pentateuch), among others.

Source: Tsipora Katsenelson-Nakhimov, Yitskhok Katsenelson (Buenos Aires, 1948), pp. 156-58, 183-84, 189.

KONRAD BERCOVICI

KONRAD BERCOVICI (June 22, 1882-December 27, 1960)

He was born in Brăila, Romania.  He lived in Paris while young and studied in French schools.  He later emigrated to Canada, contributed to Keneder odler (Canadian eagle, when it was edited by Ruvn Breinin), wrote articles, and excelled at interviews.  He was also an organ musician, and he wrote about music for Avrom Reyzen’s Dos naye land (The new land) in New York.  He contributed to Minikes yorbukh (Minikes’s annual) and Amerikaner (American), in which he published works concerned with Jewish folksong and the plastic arts.  He later wrote in English as well.  He was the author of a number of English-language books, in the main pulp-sensationalist works, some concerned with Jewish life.  He lived in Ridgewood, Connecticut.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1 (Vilna, 1931); Who Is Who in World Jewry (New York, 1955); Y. Rabinovitsh, “Yudish-literarishe tetikeyt in kanade” (Yiddish literary activity in Canada,” Yoyvl-bukh, suvenir oysgabe lekoved dem yubiley fun hundert yor idisher glaykhbarekhtigung in kanade un finf un tsvantsig yor keneder odler (Jubilee volume, souvenir publication honoring the jubilee of the centenary of equal rights for Jews in Canada and the twenty-fifty anniversary of Keneder odler) (Montreal, 1932); Dr. A. Koralnik, “Der tsigeyner-yid” (The Gypsy-Jew), Tog (New York) (March 18, 1931).

SHMUEL BERKOVITSH

SHMUEL BERKOVITSH (1894-October 5, 1937)

He was born in Sosnovits (Sosnowiec), Poland, and graduated from the local senior high school.  He studied medicine in Zurich, Switzerland, and political economy in Vienna.  From early youth, he was active in the Bund.  He worked as a teacher in Jewish high schools in Vilna and Sosnovits.  He was the leader of the Bundist school named for B. Mikhalevitsh and of the speakers school for the “Tsukunftistn” (Bundist youth).  He was a member of the board of the Kultur-lige (Culture league) and a lecturer at the People’s University in political economy.  He was a contributor to publications of the Central Committee of the Bund.  He published his writings on the conditions of Jewish laborers in Dos virtshaftlekhe lebn (The economic life) in Warsaw; on Marxism and economic issues in Undzer tsayt (Our times), Yugnt-veker (Youth alarm), Naye folkstsaytung (New people’s newspaper), Vokhnshrift far literatur (Weekly writing on literature), and Foroys (Onward)—in Warsaw.  In 1947 the Bundists in Lodz published his work: Historisher materyalizm (Historical materialism) in hectographic form, 14 pp., as no. 2 in a socialist youth library.  He died in Warsaw.

Sources: Naye folkstsaytung (Warsaw) (October 7-8, 1937); Yugnt-veker (Warsaw) 23 (October 15, 1937).

SHLOYME BERKOVITSH

SHLOYME BERKOVITSH (September 15,1888-December 31, 1954)

He was born in Pereyaslav, Ukraine.  In 1903 he emigrated to Canada and lived in Montreal and worked in a sweatshop.  In 1910 he was one of the founders of the first Jewish secular school in Montreal.  In 1916 when branches of the Workmen’s Circle began to open schools, he was invited to be the manager and a teacher in the Philadelphia school.  In 1923 he moved to New York and became one of the founders of the “Sholem-Aleykhem Folk Institute.”  He was also connected to the Sholem Aleichem Folk Institutes in Detroit and in Chicago.  Together with Yudel Mark, Y. Kh. Pomerants, and Dr. M. Bronshteyn, he edited Shul-pinkes, aroysgegebn lekoved dem tsvantsikstn yoyvl, 1926-1946 (School records, published to commemorate the twentieth anniversary [of the Sholem Aleichem Folk Institute], 1926-1946) (Chicago, 1948), 674 pp.  He contributed to the Shul-pinkes an essay entitled “Di stires tsvishn teorye un praktik in undzer yidisher shul” (The discrepancies between theory and practice in our Jewish school).  He also wrote a memoir concerning Dr. Chaim Zhitlovsky and others.  During WWII, due to ill health, he moved to Florida and California.  He died in Los Angeles.

Sources: L. Shpizman, “Etapn fun der geshikhte fun der tsienistisher arbeter-bavegung in tsofn-amerike” (Stages in the history of the Zionist labor movement in North America) (New York, 1955); Lipe Lehrer, “Shloyme berkovitsh, olevasholem” (Shloyme Berkovitsh, may he rest in peace), Kinder-zhurnal (New York) (February 1954); obituary in Forverts (New York) (January 1, 1955).

MIKHL BERKOVITSH

MIKHL BERKOVITSH (February 3, 1865-July 17, 1935)

He was born in Boryslav, eastern Galicia, and raised in Drohobych and Lemberg.  He was a pioneer of Zionism in Galicia and a founder of the association “Mikra kodesh” (Holy convocation) as well as the Zionist Association in Lemberg.  Together with Mortkhe (Mordecai) Ehrenpreis, he founded a Jewish people’s library which published a number of books in Yiddish.  In 1891 he settled in Brod, where he established a high school.  From 1893 he studied at the University of Vienna and the rabbinical seminary there.  He took a position close to Theodor Herzl, and served as his secretary for him as well as a close collaborator at the First Zionist Congress.  In late 1898 he settled in Cracow, where he served on the editorial board and administrator of Der yud (The Jew), which began to appear in 1899 under the editorship of Y. Kh. Ravnitski and later Dr. Yoysef Lurye.  He was one of the first to try to unify Yiddish orthography.  While in Cracow, he was the librarian of the Jewish library Ezra.  From 1903 he was back in Vienna where he devoted his time to philological research on old Hebrew literature and served as secretary for Hebrew and Yiddish of the Zionist Association—the association of Austrian groups for the colonization of Palestine.  He was also the founder of the Viennese student group “Gamla.”  While he was living in Vienna, he gained access to the archival materials of Aron Liberman.  He worked on them and published from them in Tsukunft (Future) 6 (1924), in Yoyvl-bukh haynt (Jubilee volume today) (1928), and in Hatsfira (The siren).  He was also on the editorial board of Monumenta Judaica.  From 1911 he served as director of a Jewish high school in Bielsk (Silesia).  Around 1880 he began publishing in Haivri (The Jew), Hamazkir (The scribe) in Lemberg, and Tsaytung (Newspaper) which was published in Rohatyn in Judeo-German.  Using the pseudonym “Student from Lvov,” he published in Broides’s Hazman (The times), Hamagid (The preacher) in Cracow, Hatsfira, Fraynd (Friend), Tsukunft, Yud, Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Haynt (Today), the Judeo-German weekly Hoffnung (Hope), and in the Encyklopaedia Judaica (Berlin).  He translated into Hebrew Herzl’s Der Judenstaat (The Jewish state) (Warsaw, 1896) and a portion of Herzl’s other writings; and he translated into Yiddish a story by Wilhelm Feldmann about Jewish life, Dovid Frishman’s “Matot-mase” (Tribes, journeys) with an introduction by Frishman (published by their people’s library), a booklet from German entitled A sof tsu di tsores (An end to troubles), and Henry George’s tract Moses, Apostle of Freedom.  From Yiddish into German, he translated works by Sholem-Aleykhem, Avrom Reyzen, and Y. Bershalski, among others.  He also wrote the booklet Khanike (Hanukkah), under the pseudonym “M. Henes.”  He died in Szczyrk, near Bilits, Silesia.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Gershom Bader, Medina veḥakhameha (The state and its sages) (New York, 1934), p. 145; Dr. Y. Tenenboym, Galicia, mayn alte heym (Galicia, my old home) (New York, 1952), see index; A. Gurshteyn, in Visnshaftlekhe yorbikher (Scholarly annuals) (Moscow, 1929), vol. 1; Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) (August 2, 1935).

L[EYB] BERKOVITSH

L[EYB] BERKOVITSH (March 12, 1897-September 2, 1958)

He was born in Anisht (Anyksciai), Kovno region, into a poor tailor’s household.  He received a traditional Jewish education.  At age thirteen he emigrated to Canada, and at age fifteen he began working in various trades.  At seventeen, he began writing poems and skits.  He published them in provincial newspapers and magazines.  In 1925 he moved to New York where he published poems for children in Kinder-zhurnal (Children’s magazine), Kundes (Prankster), and elsewhere—later, in Frayhayt (Freedom).  For many years he worked as a teacher.  From 1929 he was living in California.  He was the husband of the poetess, Leah Hofman, who died young.  He was the author of the volume of poetry: Kleynvelt (Small world) (Los Angeles, 1934), 120 pp.

Source: Aleksander Pomerants, Proletpen (Proletarian pen) (Kiev, 1935), p. 200.

YITSKHOK-DOV BERKOVITSH (ISAAC DOV BERKOWITZ)

YITSKHOK-DOV BERKOVITSH (ISAAC DOV BERKOWITZ) (October 15, 1885-March 29, 1967)

     He was born in Slutsk (Sluck), Byelorussia—his father’s name was Ezriel.  He received a traditional education.  At age fifteen he became a teacher in the same “cheder metukan” (improved religious elementary school) in Slutsk where he had been a student.  He was the founder of the local association “Dovre ivrit” (Speakers of Hebrew), which with the help of Avrom Epshteyn and Meyer Vaksman enabled him to publish by hectography a periodical in Hebrew, entitled Hatsair (The pioneer).  In it he published his first stories.  At age seventeen he moved to Lodz, where he became acquainted with Yitskhok Katsenelson; and thanks to the latter, he began to publish in the Warsaw daily newspaper Hatsofe (The spectator).  In 1903 he received a prize for his story “Moshkele ḥazir” (Little Moshe the pig)—among the judges were Y. L. Peretz and Yosef Klausner).  From Lodz he moved to Yekaterinoslav and became a teacher in the home of Menachem Ussishkin’s father-in-law.  He later returned to Slutsk and from there moved on to Warsaw, where he got to know Kh. N. Bialik.  In 1905 he was invited to Vilna to become assistant editor of Hazman (The times), and there, in addition to stories, he published feature pieces under the pen name “Barak.”  In Vilna he became acquainted with Sholem-Aleykhem, married his daughter Esther, and together with his father-in-law and the entire family departed for Galicia.  He lived for a certain period of time in Geneva, Switzerland, and from there to Nervi, Italy, and later still to the Black Forest in Germany.

     In 1910 he returned with his family to Imperial Russia, settled in Warsaw, and became the literary editor of Mortkhe Spektor’s Di naye velt (The new world).  That very year he began to translate into Hebrew Sholem-Alekhem’s writings.  The first two volumes were: Tevye der milkhiker (Tevye the dairyman) and Menakhem-mendl.  He published these translations initially in Har hazman (The mountain of time) and in Haolam (The world) in Warsaw.  A short time later he was called to Vilna to edit the literary section of Haolam (editor, A. Druyanov).  In the spring of 1912 he moved with Haolam to Odessa.  There two new volumes of Sholem-Alekhem translations appeared: Adam vebehema (Man and animal) and Yamim tovim (Holidays).  At the end of 1913 he left Russia for the final time and settled with his family in Berlin.  When war broke out in 1914, he departed with Sholem-Alekhem’s family for Copenhagen and from there for the United States.  In New York he became editor of the humorous weekly newspaper Der groyser kundes (The great prankster), in which he published a number of stories and feature pieces under the pen name “Be-be.”  In 1916 he became editor of Hatoren (The mast), in which he published his own writings as well as translations of Sholem-Alekhem.  After the death of Sholem-Alekhem in 1916, Berkovitsh prepared for publication an edition of the humorist’s collected writings.  He also adapted for the stage Sholem-Alekhem’s theatrical work, and with his Hebrew version of Sholem-Alekhem, he made this into a classic for Hebrew literature as well.  In 1920 he became editor of Shtibl Publishers and of the journal Miklat (Refuge), and he also published a short Hebrew “library” for youth entitled Mikraot ketanot (Small reader).  In 1926 he edited the Sholem-aleykhem bukh (Sholem-Aleykhem book) (New York), 381 pp.  Included in this volume, together with Sholem-Alekhem’s letters and other materials, were Berkovitsh’s reminiscences and various other biographical information concerning Sholem-Alekhem, his family, and the Yiddish literary family overall.  He made aliya to Israel in the winter of 1928, and there he lived for the rest of his life.  In Israel he published, together with Fishl Lakhover, the literary weekly Moznaim (Scales).

     He also wrote in Yiddish for: Tsukunft (Future), Dos yidishe folk (The Jewish people), Lemberger tageblat (Lemberg daily newspaper), Der idisher kemfer (The Jewish fighter), Yidishes tageblat (Jewish daily newspaper), Der amerikaner (The American), Dos folk (The folk), Der fraynd (The friend), Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal), Di naye velt, Dos lebn (Life), Der groyser kundes, Der tog (Day), Forverts (Forward), and Di goldene keyt (The golden chain), among others.  Using the pseudonym “Be-be,” he edited Hagode shel prese (The Haggadah of the press), a satirical anthology concerning the Warsaw Yiddish press (Warsaw, 1910), 16 pp.  In Hebrew he published in: Hatsofe, Hashiloaḥ (The shiloah), Luaḥ aḥiasef (Calendar of Aḥiasef), Hazman, Haam (The people), Haolam, Hatsfira (The siren), Moledet (Homeland), Hatoren, Miklat, Hadoar (The mail), Haarets (The land), Davar (Word), Moznaim, and Atidot (Future events), among others.  He edited a literary collection Grins (Greens) for Shavuot (Warsaw, 1920).  Among his books: Ugerkes (Cucumbers) (New York, 1909), 53 pp.; Gezamlte shriftn (Collected writings) (Warsaw, 1909-1910), 210 pp.; Undzere rishoynem, zikhroynes-dertseylungen vegn sholem-aleykhem un zayn dor (Our founding fathers, memoirs and stories of Sholem-Aleichem and his generation) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1966), five vols.; Baginen, roman (Dawn, a novel) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1968), 439 pp.; Kinder-yorn (Childhood years) (Tel Aviv: Peretz Publ., 1970), 257 pp.; Menakhem-mendl in erets-yisroel (Menakhem-Mendl in the Land of Israel) (Tel Aviv, 1973), 244 pp.  In Hebrew: Aḥaronim (The last ones) (Tel Aviv, 1929), 162 pp.; Maḥazot (Vistas) (Tel Aviv, 1929), 171 pp.; Menaḥem-mendel beerets yisrael (Menakhem-Mendl in Palestine) (Tel Aviv, 1936), 217 pp.; Yemot hamashiaḥ (Messianic times) (Tel Aviv, 1937), 339 pp.; and Harishonim ki-vene-adam (The first ones as human beings)—five volumes.  Berkovitsh’s dramatic works include: Landslayt (Countrymen) (in Hebrew: Baaratsot hareḥokot [On distant terrain]) (New York, 1921), 100 pp., which was also translated and published in Belorussian; a three-act play entitled Untern tseylem (Under the cross), an adaptation of his story “Moshkele ḥazir” which was, under the same title, staged in Maurice Schwartz’s Yiddish Art Theater (called in Hebrew: Oto veet beno [Him and his son]); and he also published in Tsukunft (1930) a three-act play entitled Fun yener velt (From the other world).  In Hebrew there also appeared his play Misḥak purim (The game of Purim), a comedy in one act.  Aside from Sholem-Aleykhem’s works, Berkovitsh also translated a portion of the writings of Tolstoy and Chekhov.  His own stories were translated into Russian, Polish, German, English, French, and Spanish.  Among his pen names (in addition to those mentioned above): Y. D. Zelikson, Litvak, Y. D., B. Ernst, Y. Avitamar, Y. D. B., and Yitskhok Even Ezriel, among others.

     He was a member of the Hebrew Language Council of the State of Israel.  With his realistic style, polished language, and restrained humor, he occupies an honored place in our literature in both languages.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the founders and builders of Israel) (Tel Aviv, 1947-1971); Z. Zilbertsvayg, Teater-leksikon, vol. 1; Shmuel Niger, Vegn yidishe shrayber (On Yiddish writers), vol. 2 (Warsaw, 1927), pp. 109-23; Niger, in Tog (September 1924, February 5, 1928, August 10, 1930); Dr. A. Mukdoni, in Yorbukh fun amopteyl (Yearbook from the American Branch of YIVO), vol. 1, pp. 251-72; Avrom Reyzen, Epizodn fun mayn lebn (Episodes from my life), vols. 2-3 (Vilna, 1929-1935); Y. Mestl, 70 yor teater-repertuar (Seventy years of theater repertoire) (New York, 1954), see index; D. Pinski, in Morgn-zhurnal (June 8, 1954); Abraham Epshteyn, Mikarov umeraḥok (From near and from far) (New York, 1943), pp. 126-35; Dr. A. Mukdoni, In varshe un lodzh (In Warsaw and Lodz), vol. 1 (Buenos Aires, 1955); M. Ribalov, Sofrim veishim (Writers and men) (New York, 1936), pp. 104-14; Mivḥar maamarim al yetsirato (The best of his writings) (Tel Aviv, 1976).

Yekhezkil Keytelman

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 113.]