BONTSHE

BONTSHE (1884-1941/1942)

Pseudonym of Avrom Rozenfeld, he was born in Opolye in the Lublin district, into a Hassidic family.  He studied in religious schools and on his own in the synagogue study hall.  He worked as a forester.  In 1906 he came to Warsaw and began to publish in Undzer lebn (Our life) (Warsaw, 1909) as well as in other publications in both Yiddish and Hebrew.  From time to time, he published in satirical newspapers, as well as a series of holiday leaves entitled Blumen (Flowers) in 1912.  From 1911 on, he was a regular contributor to Moment (Moment) in Warsaw, for which he wrote stories, humorous pieces, and feature essays.  From 1926, he was the editor of that magazine’s section, “Der krumer shpigl” (The crooked mirror).  In 1919 he edited a weekly, illustrated, humoristic periodical, Der frayer foygl (The free bird).  Among his books: Inem rash (Amid the noise), stories from the war years (Warsaw, 1921); Di grine brik (The green bridge), stories (Warsaw, 1924), 191 pp.  He wrote an operetta entitled Di froyen-gegner (The women’s adversary), staged in Warsaw in 1918.  He was the father of the Warsaw Jewish journalist, Aleksander Rozenfeld, a contributor to Moment.  He died in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Jonas Turkov, Azoy iz es geven (That’s how it was) (Buenos Aires, 1948), pp. 246, 455; Mendl Mozes, in Der poylisher yid (The Polish Jew) (annual, 1944).