LEYBUSH-BER HALPERT

LEYBUSH-BER HALPERT (d. May 1944)

            He was born in Borsha (Borșa), Hungary and received a traditional Jewish education.  Until May 1944 he lived in Sighetu Marmației, Transylvania, where he ran a shop.  He was a member of the young writers’ group which gathered around the journal Oyfgang (Arise) in Sighetu Marmației.  In it he published sketches, as well as articles concerning Jewish issues.  He was among the main contributors to Marmarosher bleter (Marmației leaves) over the years 1931-1932.  He also contributed to the Orthodox Yidishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) in Munkatsh (Hung. Munkács), among other serials.  When the Germans seized Sighetu Marmației in March 1944, he was arrested.  He was later confined to the ghetto there, and from there on May 14, 1944 he was deported to Auschwitz and murdered there by the Nazis.

Source: E. Vizl (Elie Wiesel), Un di velt hot geshvign (And the world remained silent) (Buenos Aires, 1956).

MEYER AKSELROD

MEYER AKSELROD (1902-1970)

            He was born in Molodetshne, Vilna region.  He illustrated work by Sholem-Aleykhem, Y. L. Peretz, Sh. Halkin, L. Kvitko, N. Lurye, Z. Akselrod, and others.

Source: Sovetish heymland, Materyaln far a leksikon fun der yidisher sovetisher literatur (Materials for a handbook of Soviet Jewish literature) (September 1975).

SH. A. OKSMAN

SH. A. OKSMAN

            He was the author of Amol un haynt (Then and now), “a play in three acts and four scenes, a portrait of contemporary life” (Odessa: Brider Bletnitski, 1907), 32 pp.

ARN OKNITSER (OCNITZER)

ARN OKNITSER (OCNITZER) (1899-mid-1960s)

            He was born in Sekuren, Bessarabia.  He traveled through many countries.  In the late 1920s he arrived in Rio de Janeiro, and there he began writing for the Yiddish press.  He returned to Bessarabia in 1932.  His books would include: Evangelishe motivn (Evangelical motifs) (Bucharest: Moris Vintshevski, 1937), 37 pp.  He was arrested for insulting the Christian religion in this book of his.  In 1939 he was freed by the court.  This was actually a pseudonym used by Arn Roytman.

ARYE-LEYB HOLENDERSKI

ARYE-LEYB HOLENDERSKI (1879-April 7, 1940)

            He was born in Lodz, Poland, into a semi-assimilated family of merchants and factor owners.  He graduated from a Russian-Polish commercial school in Lodz, and studied business in Germany and Switzerland.  From his student years forward, he was active in the Jewish labor movement; he was also a member of the Labor Zionists in the former Russia and of its central committee in Poland.  He lived in Lodz from 1915 until WWII.  He was one of the founders (in 1915) of the Jewish school association and one of the authors of the famed petition with over 30,000 Jewish signatures to the German occupying authorities in Lodz concerned with a Jewish public school; he was a member of the first Workmen’s Circle in Lodz (1918); he chaired the “Borochov School trusteeship” in Poland and the Borochov School in Lodz and was a cofounder of Labor Zionist cooperatives in Lodz.  Between 1916 and 1939, he chaired the Lodz Committee of the Left Labor Zionists, was a member of the Lodz city council and of the Jewish community (where he led a fight for the rights of the Yiddish language and secular Jewish culture), and he withstood insults from the Polish city council majority for his Yiddish speeches.  He was a regular contributor to Arbeter-tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper) in Warsaw (1913-1939) and to Lodzher arbeter (Lodz worker) (1933-1938), and he co-edited the latter—in these he published (under the pen names Arye, Leyb, and Viktor) articles on a variety of themes.  In September 1939 when the Germans were approaching Lodz, he escaped to Warsaw and there he survived the siege.  Later, after returning to Lodz, he was deported to the German concentration camps of Dachau and Oranienburg where he was tortured to his death.

Sources: A. Tartakover, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (June 21, 1940); Y. Kener, Kvershnit (Cross-section) (New York, 1947), pp. 247-51; Kh. Brand, in Zamlbukh mulye (Mulye anthology) (Tel Aviv, 1955), pp. 42-45; Sh. Eydelman, in Zamlbukh mulye, pp. 168-79; Kh. L. Fuks, in Fun noentn over 3 (New York, 1957); N. Nir, in Asupot (Tel Aviv) (June 1957); Nir, Pirke ḥayim (Chapter of life) (Tel Aviv, 1958), pp. 89, 101.

Khayim Leyb Fuks

YITSKHOK EFROS

YITSKHOK EFROS

            He wrote the volume Umruike yorn, lider un poemes (Unsettled years, poetry) (Los Angeles: Bukh-komitet, 1951), 160 pp.

BER EFRAYIM

BER EFRAYIM

            He was the author of Frayndlekhe redes (Friendly speeches), poetry (New York, 1935), 118 pp.