TSVI YOSEM

TSVI YOSEM (b. March 15, 1916)

            He was born in Sekuran (Secureni), Bessarabia.  From 1937 he was living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  He studied in the local university and his dissertation topic was: Thomas Aquinas and the Rambam (Maimonides), for which he received his PhD degree.  He was director of the Hebrew-Portuguese high school and a lecturer on Yiddish and Yiddish literature in the Hebrew teachers’ seminary in Rio.  He began writing with articles in Unzer tsayt (Our time) in Kishinev (1934), and from that point he contributed to: Karnenu (Our fund) in Kishinev; Der nayer moment (The new moment) and Der velt-shpigl (The world mirror) in São Paolo (1939-1940); and Di yidishe prese (The Jewish press) in Rio de Janeiro; among others.  In book form he published: Apikorsishe gedanken vegn y. l. perets, tsu zayn hundertstn geboyrntog (Heretical thoughts about Y. L. Perets, on the 100^th anniversary of his birth) (Rio, 1952), 35 pp.; Oytser fun hebreizmen, ṿerterbukh fun hebraishe un aramishe elementn in der yidisher shprakh (Treasury of Hebraisms, a dictionary of Hebrew and Aramaic elements in the Yiddish language), 3 vols. (Rio, 1954), 144 pp.; Leksikon fun yidishe askonim un kultur-tuers in brazil (Biographical dictionary of business and cultural leaders in Brazil), 5 vols (Rio de Janeiro, 1953-1957), with pictures of Jewish leaders in the Brazilian regions of Porto Alegro, Curitiba, Minas-Gerias, Pernambuco, and Bahai.  He translated into Portuguese (together with Henrique Yosem) two volumes of Sh. Dubnov’s Geshikhte fun yidishn folk (History of the Jewish people), 685 pp.  He published as well in the Spanish-language Jewish press.

Sources: Y. Varshavski, in Forverts (New York) (February 23, 1958); A. Oyerbakh, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (March 30, 1959).

Khayim Leyb Fuks