YUDE (YEHUDA) YEFET

YUDE (YEHUDA) YEFET (1905-summer 1942)

            The pen name of Dovid Shapiro, he was born in the town of Pokshivtse, Lublin district, Poland, into a family that drew its pedigree back to the Kozhenitser Magid [Rabbi Yisroel Hofsztajn].  He was the son of the Blendover Rebbe and himself received rabbinical ordination.  In 1922 he became active in the Mizrachi Party in Warsaw.  He was a member of the Mizrachi central committee in Poland.  He was one of the principal leaders of the “Torah veavoda” (Torah and labor) movement.  He was a creator of the Mizrachi school system and editor at its public library Yavne in Warsaw.  He began his literary pursuits with translations from the work of Schneur Zalman into Yiddish, as well as with Hebrew and Yiddish poetry.  He initially published a series of articles on Hassidism in Hayom (Today) and was later a contributor in Hebrew to Hatsfira (The siren) and in Yiddish to Haynt (Today)—in Warsaw (1925); among other items, he published in the latter a series of articles entitled “Shmuesn un mesholim fun rov r’ bunem fun pshiskhe” (Chats and fables from Rabbi Bunem of Przysucha) and in 1934 his first historical novel, Don yosef hanasi (Don Joseph the prince).  From 1936 he was an internal contributor to Moment (Moment) and Radyo (Radio) in Warsaw, in which he published his historical novels: Der troym fun a yidisher medine (The dream of a Jewish state) (1936) and Yerusholaim in flamen (Jerusalem ablaze) (1938), among others.  He was a cofounder of the Mizrachi weekly newspaper Di idishe shtime (The Jewish voice) in Warsaw, which he edited (1932) and in which he published his historical tale “Bruria” [the wife of R. Meir of the Talmud].  He contributed as well to: Zaglembyer tsaytung (Zagłębie newspaper) in Będzin (1919-1939), Diglenu (Our banner) in Warsaw, and Hatsofe (The spectator) in Jerusalem.  He also edited the following collections: Khanike-bukh (Hanukkah book) (Warsaw, 1938), 64 pp.; Shvues-bukh (Shavuot book) (Warsaw, 1938), 50 pp.; Sukes-bukh (Sukkot book) (Warsaw, 1938), 64 pp.; Peysekh-bukh (Passover book) (Warsaw, 1939), 63 pp.; Shuhlen in fayer fun doyres, tsu der martirologie fun di yudishe heyligṭimer (Synagogues ablaze over the generation, toward a martyrology of holy Jewish sites) (Warsaw, 1939), 64 pp.  He was also co-editor of the Hebrew-language publication Gevilin (Scrolls) (Warsaw, 1937).  He published under such pen names as: Akhishem, D. Shapir, Yedidye, and Khian.  In the Warsaw Ghetto, he ran illegal educational work for Mizrachi.  He founded a string of secret religious schools and “children’s corners.”  He belonged to the initiators of an illegal Jewish community.  On July 19, 1942, he took part in a meeting of Warsaw leaders concerning the anticipated expulsion from Warsaw.  On August 1, 1942 at the time of the great Aktion in the Warsaw Ghetto, he was seized at Umschlagplatz (the collection point in Warsaw for deportation), sent to Treblinka, and murdered there.

Sources: Dr. M. Shulvas, Datn un khronik fun der toyre-veavode-bavegung in poyln (Dates and chronicle of the Tora veavoda movement in Poland) (Warsaw, 1937); Shulvas, in Yivo-bleter (Vilna) 14.1-2 (1939); Dr. R. Feldshuh, Idishe gezelshaftlikher leksikon (Jewish communal handbook), vol. 1 (Warsaw, 1939), p. 807; H. Zaydman, in Unzer veg (Paris) (November 13, 1947); Yonas Turkov, Azoy iz es geven (That’s how it was) (Buenos Aires, 1948), p. 246; B. Mark, Umgekumene shrayber fun di getos un lagern (Murdered writers from the ghettos and camps) (Warsaw, 1954), p. 59; M. Prager, Antologye fun religyeze lider un dertseylungen (Anthology of religious poems and stories) (New York, 1955), pp. 466-76; M. Mozes, in Fun noentn over (New York) 2 (1956), see index; L. Shpigelman, in Pinkes bendin (Records of Będzin) (Tel Aviv, 1959), pp. 338-39.

Khayim Leyb Fuks