SHMUEL-BER LEYKIN

SHMUEL-BER LEYKIN (October 7, 1896-April 11, 1979)

            He was born in Pobalov (Pobalava?), Minsk district.  In English, he used as a first name: Benjamin.  He studied in religious elementary school and yeshiva.  In 1914 he moved to the United States.  He worked as a businessman in Detroit, Camden, and Baltimore.  He authored: Zikhroynes fun a praktishn bal-khaloymes, mayn lebn un mayne tetikeytn in dem yidish-gezelshaftlekhn lebn bemeshekh fun a halbn yorhundert (Memoirs of a practical dreamer, my life and my activities in Jewish community life over the course of a half century)[1] (Detroit, 1970), 287 pp.  His daughter Judith Leykin-Elkin was the author of three English-language books, one on the Jews of Latin America.  He died in Detroit.

Sources: A. Golomb, in Der veg (Mexico City) (April 24, 1970); M. Ḥalamish, in Al hamishmar (Tel Aviv) (Tevet 7 [= January 4], 1971).

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 335.

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[1] Translator’s note. There is an English translation of this work (1971). (JAF)