Ephraim Auerbach (1892–1973)

Ephraim Auerbach was born Froym Oyerbakh to a Jewish family in Bełz, Bessarabia, then part of the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine). His father was a Hasidic shochet (kosher butcher). Auerbach was privately educated, and by the time he was 17, he had published stories and poems in Russian, Hebrew, and Yiddish. In 1912, he moved to Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire. He was expelled by the Turks at the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and joined the volunteer Jewish Legion of the British Army. He fought at Gallipoli before being demobilized. In 1915, he emigrated to the USA, settling in New York City. There he became a prolific poet, essayist, memoirist, and translator. For 50 years, he contributed to Yiddish publications and published numerous books. His collection of poems Loyter is der alter kval (Pure Is the Ancient Spring), published in 1940, won the Louis Lamed Prize. In addition to his writing, Auerbach was an energetic and effective activist for a wide range of Yiddish cultural and educational causes. For many years, he taught in the Yiddish schools run by the Sholem Aleichem Peoples Institute, whose president was Dr. Yekhiel Kling. Auerbach was also president of the Yiddish PEN Club, of which Bertha Kling, a Yiddish poet and singer, was an active member. He was one of the founders in 1938 of the CYCO (Central Yiddish Cultural Organization), which developed into the leading publisher of Yiddish books. He also served as president of the League for the Rights of Yiddish in Palestine. He returned to live in Israel near the end of his life.