YOYSEF-LEYB BRUKSHTEYN (LUDOVIC BRUCKSTEIN)

YOYSEF-LEYB BRUKSHTEYN (LUDOVIC BRUCKSTEIN) (July 27, 1920-August 4, 1988)

            He was born in Mukačevo (Munkács), Czechoslovakia.  He was a playwright, prose author, and writer on current affairs.  He studied in religious elementary school and in his father’s house.  He was a descendant of generations of rabbis and scribes.  In 1938 he graduated from a commercial high school in Sighet and in 1952 from his academic studies in literature in Bucharest.  He survived Auschwitz, returned to Romania, and became professor of theater history in Sighet Art School.  He published plays, stories, and current events articles in Yiddish, Romanian, and Hungarian.  A number of his plays have been staged in Yiddish as well as in foreign language theaters.  He edited the monthly Unzer lebn (Our life) (issues 1-4, 1947).  His work includes: Nakht shikht (Night shift), a play (Bucharest: State Publ., 1950), 68 pp.; Di mishpokhe grinvald (The family Grinvald), a play in four acts (Bucharest: State Publ., 1957), 100 pp.  In Hebrew translation: Havidui, roman (The vow, a novel) (Tel Aviv, 1975), 134 pp.; Shalosh historyot (Three stories) (Tel Aviv, 1983), 92 pp.  His one-act play Di shokhnte (The female neighbor) was published in Kultur-vegvayzer (Culture guide) in Bucharest.  His plays and one-acters Dor hamidbar (Generation of the desert), A nit-farendikter protses (An incomplete trial), In himl vi af der erd (In Heaven as on Earth) which was a dramatic story of the Baal Shem Tov, Erd un brider (Land and brothers), A nit-dervarter gast (An unexpected guest), Harbst-klangen (Sounds of autumn), Opgeshminkt (Painted faces), Tsurikker fun kristofor kolombus (The return of Christopher Columbus), and Vayse nekht (White nights)—were staged in the Bucharest Yiddish theater and mainly in Romanian.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: N, Mayzil, Tsurikblikn un perspektivn (Retrospectives and perspectives) (Tel Aviv, 1962), p. 200; Y. Mestel, Literatur un teater (Literature and theater) (New York, 1962), pp. 315-16; Sh. Polak, Ksav-es tsayshrift (Bucharest) (December 1969); N. Mark, Yidish literatur in rumenye (Yiddish literature in Romania) (Haifa, 1971), see index; V. Tambur, Yidishe prese in rumenye (Yiddish press in Romania) (Bucharest, 1972), see index; Y. Berkovitsh, Hundert yor yidish teater in rumenye (A century of Yiddish theater in Romania) (Bucharest, 1976), pp. 212-14; numerous reviews of Brukshteyn’s work have been published in the Romanian and Hungarian press.

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 118-19.

Reuven Goldberg