ARN LYUBOSHITSKI (AARON LUBOSHITZKI)

ARN LYUBOSHITSKI (AARON LUBOSHITZKI) (August 22, 1874-July 26, 1942)

            He was born in Rozhenoy (Ruzhany), Grodno district, Russian Poland.  Until age fourteen he studied in religious elementary school, later graduating from a middle school in Slonim.  In 1894 he became a Hebrew teacher in Warsaw.  From 1928 he worked in a Polish Hebrew high school in Lodz.  He published Hebrew poetry in Luaḥ aḥiasef in Warsaw (1894), and he later wrote poems, stories, and essays on books for such Hebrew-language publications as: Hatsfira (The siren), Hatsofe (The spectator), Baderekh (On the road), Haḥaim vehateva (Life and nature), Hakokhav (The star), Ben-kokhav (Asteroid), and Peraḥim (Flowers), among others.  In Yiddish he published articles in Dr. Yoysef Lurya’s Der yud (The Jew) (Warsaw-Cracow, 1899), for which he would later serve as an internal contributor.  He also placed poetry and translations from Russian and Hebrew poems in: Di velt (The world) in Vienna (1901-1902); Der veker (The alarm) in Vilna (1905-1906); Di idishe velt (The Jewish world) in St. Petersburg (1912); Unzer lebn (Our life) and Haynt (Today) in Warsaw; and Lodzer tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper) in Lodz; among others.  He was the author of books (poetry and stories) in Hebrew, including: Pitse noar (Wounds of youth) (Warsaw, 1894), 32 pp.; Perek shira, shirim mekorim umeturgamim (Selection of poetry, original poems and translations) (Warsaw, 1897), 28 pp.; Yosele hamatmid, sipur mekori baḥaruzim (Yosele the industrious, original story in verse) (Piotrków, 1899), 42 pp.; Shir vezemer (Poem and song) (Warsaw, 1903), 96 pp.; Dimyonot vaagadot, shirim ḥadashim (Fantasies and tales, new poems) (Warsaw, 1902), 80 pp.; and Mimerirut haḥaim, sipurim vetsiyurim (From the bitterness of life, stories and drawings) (Piotrków, 1900), 75 pp.; among others, as well as a series of Hebrew textbooks.  He translated into Hebrew and adapted for schools Shimen Dubnov’s five-volume work as: Korot haivrim (History of the Jews) (Warsaw, 1912), 124 pp.  He edited the Hebrew children’s magazines Hakokhav and Ben-kokhav (Warsaw-Lodz).  In Yiddish, he published: Hamislamed (The student), “a new practical home teacher for learning on one’s own the Hebrew language and literature”—“first volume, etymology, method, and reader” (Warsaw, 1910), 78 pp.  He also published under such pen names as: Arnold Smit, A. Ben Dov, and Harun El Rashid.  Until the winter of 1940, he lived in Lodz, after which he left for Warsaw where he was a teacher in the illegal Hebrew schools in the ghetto.  During the January Aktion (1942), he was deported from Umschlagplatz (the collection point in Warsaw for deportation) to Treblinka and murdered there.  A number of his short stories were reprinted in the collection Udim (Firebrands) (Jerusalem, 1960), pp. 73-81.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen-zrkhiv (Zalmen Reyzen archive) (New York, YIVO); Ben-Tsien Ayzenshtadt, Dor rabanav vesofrav (A generation of rabbis and authors), vol. 1 (Vilna, 1905), p. 41; Dr. H. Zaydman, Togbukh fun varshever geto (Diary from the Warsaw Ghetto) (Buenos Aires, 1947), p. 251; Sefer ruzhanoy (Volume for Ruzhany) (Tel Aviv, 1957), p. 91; Y. Likhtnboym, Shiratenu, antologya (Our poetry, anthology) (Tel Aviv, 1962), see index; Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 8.

Khayim Leyb Fuks