HENEKH HALPERN

HENEKH HALPERN (b. November 1, 1894)

            The brother of Hebrew writer Mordechai Ben-Yekhezkil, he was born in Glinyani (Gline), eastern Galicia, and was raised in a fiercely Orthodox household.  He studied in religious elementary school and at Baron Hirsch schools as well.  He went with the Second Aliya to Palestine and later emigrated to the United States where he became a worker in a sweatshop; he was also active in the trade union movement.  He published articles in: Lemberger togblat (Lemberg daily newspaper); and Di varhayt (The truth), Forverts (Forward), Der tog (The day), and Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal) in New York.  He published in Yidishe shprakh (Yiddish language) in New York 3.14 (July-September 1954) a list of Yiddish words with explanations as they were used and pronounced in eastern Galicia.  He edited the jubilee journal of Glinyani natives.  His books include: Khurbn glinyani (The Holocaust in Glinyani) (New York, 1946), 56 pp.; Megiles gline (The book of Gline) (New York, 1950), 307 pp.  He was living in Brooklyn.

Sources: Sh. Rubin, in Tog (New York) (February 2, 1952); G. Aronson, in Tsukunft (New York) (March 1951); Y. Shatski, in Yivo-bleter (New York) 43.

BORIS HALPERN

BORIS HALPERN (March 12, 1868-1944)

            He was born in the town of Most (Masty), Grodno region, Byelorussia.  He studied in religious elementary school, later as an external student he went through the Russian middle school course of study; and then he went on to study political economy, and from 1898 he was active in the field of credit cooperatives.  He was in charge of the “first Vilna Jewish savings-and-loan for craftsmen and small merchants” (the “Jewish Bank” on Rudnicki Street).  He first wrote on cooperatives for Russian-language cooperative journals, later in Yiddish—for Vilner tog (Vilna day) and Pinkes (Records) for Vilna (edited by Zalmen Reyzen), among others.  In book form, he published: Vi azoy darf men grindn un firn a lay- un shpor-kase (How one ought found and run a savings-and-loan bank) (Vilna, 1921), 88 pp.; A hantbukh far onfirer fun a folks-bank, a lay- un shpor-kase (A handbook for managers of a people’s bank, a savings-and-loan), with N. Kovarski (Vilna, 1922), 80 pp.; two extremely popular propaganda pamphlets published by “Jewish People’s Library”—Vos mayne oygn hobn gezen, oder vi a shtetl in raykh gevorn (What my eyes saw, or how a town got rich) (Vilna, 1925), 16 pp.; and Di vegn tsu voylshtand un glik (The ways to happiness and joy) (Vilna, 1925), 20 pp.—Iza shaliman, drame in 4 aktn un 1 bild (Iza Shaliman, a play in four acts and one scene) (Vilna: B. Kletskin, 1929), 83 pp., an anti-war play; Di anarkhye nokhn kapitalizm (The anarchy after capitalism) (Warsaw, 1933?), 106 pp.; Pinkes fun yidishn bank, 1896-1936, tsum fertsik yorikn yoyvl fun der ershter vilner yidisher lay un shpor kase far hantverker un kleynhendler (Records of a Jewish bank, 1896-1936, on the fortieth anniversary of the first Vilna Jewish savings-and-loan for craftsmen and small merchants) (Vilna, 1936), New York, 1947), p. 188.  He was also active in the Jewish commercial and artisanal association and in the Jewish democratic party in Vilna.

            When the Nazis entered Vilna, he was confined to the ghetto and worked in the bank of the “Jewish Council.”  His wife, Rivke Libishki, a teacher, also continued her work until she was deported to her death in a selection.  He was sent from the Vilna ghetto to the Kiviõli Concentration Camp in Estonia where he was murdered in 1944.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1, col. 833-34; Sh. Katsherginski, Khurbn vilne (The Holocaust in Vilna) (New York, 1947), p. 188.

FROYM OSHRI (EPHRAIM OSHRY)

FROYM OSHRI (EPHRAIM OSHRY) (May 2, 1915-September 28, 2003)

            He was born in Vilna  [other sources give the smaller city of Kupiškis, nearby in Lithuania] to devout parents.  While still a child, he was brought to Kovno, and there he studied at a religious elementary school, yeshivas, and with private tutors.  He was later an external student.  At age eighteen he received rabbinical ordination and became a rabbi in Kovno.  He was confined in the Kovno ghetto, and during the liquidation hid out in a secret dugout, emerging from there on December 3, 1944 when the Russians took the city of Kovno.  He returned to Poland with the repatriation of Polish citizens, and from there moved on to Italy.  He was the founder and head of a yeshiva for survivor children in Rome.  From 1948 he was living in the United States as a rabbi in New York.  He began publishing articles in 1933 on education and religious questions in: Yidishe shtime (Jewish voice) and Yidishe lebn (Jewish life) in Kovno; and he published articles on his experiences in: Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal), Forverts (Forward), and Der id (The Jew) in New York; Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal; and Hatsofe (The spectator) in Tel Aviv.  Among his books: Divre efrayim (Commentaries of Efrayim) (New York, 1949)—aside from treatises on religious life, there can be found here an extensive number of responsa from the Kovno ghetto which illuminate the religio-ethical situation of the Jewish population in the ghetto, and it also contains a listing of 208 Jews who were murdered in Lithuania; Khurbn lite (The Holocaust in Lithuania) (New York-Montreal: Bukh-komitet, 1951, 468 pp., with an preface by Khayim Liberman.  He also prepared for publication Di yidishe lite (Jewish Lithuania), a monograph concerned with the life and death of 107 Jewish communities in Lithuania.

Sources: Shmuel Niger, in Tog-morgn zhurnal (New York) (April 5, 1951); Y. Y. Sigal, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (September 12, 1952); Dr. Y. N. Shteynberg, in Zamlbukh lite (Anthology Lithuania), vol. 1 (New York, 1951), p. 1312; Dr. Shmuel Grinhoyz, in Zamlbukh lite (Anthology Lithuania), vol. 1 (New York, 1951), p. 1753.

YANKEV OSHPIZ

YANKEV OSHPIZ (October 1883-June 23, 1981)

            Born in Sidilke, Volhynia, he attended religious primary school and later was an external student.  In 1915 he emigrated to the United States.  He lived in San Francisco, St. Louis, New York, and from 1934 Los Angeles.  He was active in the leftist Jewish movement.  His first published article appeared in Forverts (Forward), and he later placed pieces in Morgn frayhayt (Morning freedom), Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture), and Zamlungen (Anthologies) in New York.  In book form: Literarishe eseyen (Literary essays) (Los Angeles, 1978), 136 pp.  He died in Los Angeles.

ASHER HALPERN

ASHER HALPERN (1890-December 10, 1957)

            He was born in Brisk (Brest), Lithuania.  He received a Jewish and a general education, graduating from a Russian high school.  In 1907 he moved to the United States, settled in Cleveland, where he became a dentist and, from 1915 on, worked in this profession.  He was also an active community leader, cofounder of the Jewish cultural society and of various cultural institutions in Cleveland, and for many years secretary of the associations of former Brisk and Grodno residents.  He published articles on community and cultural issues, as well as short stories and essays on literature and art, in: Di idishe velt (The Jewish world) in Cleveland (1923-1952); Idishe velt (Jewish world) in Philadelphia; Idisher kuryer (Jewish courier) in Chicago; and other serials.  He died in Cleveland.

Source: Tog-morgn zhurnal (New York) (December 12, 1957).

ESTER HALPERN

ESTER HALPERN (1884-1947)

            She was born in Warsaw, Poland.  Her father, Yekhil-Meyer Perlman, was a well-known Jewish bookseller and a close friend of Hebrew and Yiddish writers of that era in Poland.  She received both a Jewish and a general education.  She moved to Canada in 1926 and until WWII lived in Montreal, where she was active in Jewish community and cultural life.  She was a good friend of the poet Y. Y. Sigal, who introduced her to Yiddish literature.  Her writings on Yiddish writers in Warsaw, published in Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal, aroused interest in their living descriptions and folk language.  She also published literary criticism, stories, and feature pieces in Keneder odler, Dos yidishe vort (The Jewish word) in Toronto, and other serials.  Her “Zikhroynes vegn yidishe moykhre sforim un bikher-zamlers in varshe” (Memoirs of Jewish booksellers and book collectors in Warsaw)—publishing in Yivo-bleter (Pages from YIVO) in New York (1951), pp. 240-44—elucidated a bit of bygone Jewish life in Poland and was a contribution to the history of the Jewish Enlightenment movement more generally.  During the years of WWII, she settled in Ottawa and died there.

Sources: Information from Ida Maze (Montreal); Yivo-bleter (New York) (1951), p. 311.

Khayim Leyb Fuks

LILYE ASH

LILYE ASH

            Deceptive name of a man who wrote for Sovetish heymland (Soviet homeland) in Moscow.