SIMKHE-BUNEM URBAKH (SYMCHA BUNEM URBACH)

SIMKHE-BUNEM URBAKH (SYMCHA BUNEM URBACH) (December 31, 1913-1971)

     Born in Warsaw into a merchant-rabbinical family.  He studied in Warsaw Metivta, graduating from the Tachkemoni Rabbinical Seminary and receiving his ordination at the Mirer Yeshiva, then studied at the University of Bordeaux, France, and graduating from a university in Jerusalem.  He worked as an orator at the great Praga Synagogue in Warsaw.  He served as chair of the youth movement Haboneh (The builder) in Warsaw.  As a refugee during WWII, he roamed over a number of different countries.  From 1942, he was living in Palestine where he served as rabbi first in Sdeh Yaakov, later in Tivon.  He was a frequent delegate from the Jewish Agency to Europe.  He worked as a teacher at the Institute for Jewish Studies in Tel Aviv.  He began publishing in the Polish Jewish newspaper, Echo żydowskie (Jewish echo).  He was a contributor to Undzer veg (Our way), organ of Mizrachi (Paris), and Bitsaron (Fortress) (New York), as well as Hatekufa (The epoch) and Hatsofe (The spectator) in Palestine.  Between the two world wars, he edited Der nayer ruf (The new call) (Warsaw, first number: February 1939).  He was author of the brochure: Vos iz un vos vil habone? (What is and will become of Haboneh?) (Warsaw, 1935), 50 pp.  Among his books: Toldot neshama achat (Biography of a soul), about Hillel Zeitlin (Palestine, 1953), 171 pp.; Amude hamachashava hayisraelit (Pages of an Israeli idea) (Jerusalem, 1953), vol. 1, 308 pp, vol. 2, 360 pp.

Sources: Undzer veg (Paris) (February 20, 1953); Kidesh hashem (Jewish martyrdom), collected and edited by Sh. Niger (New York, 1946/1947), see index.