SHLOYME SKULSKI

SHLOYME SKULSKI (September 9, 1912-July 3, 1982)

            He was born in the town of Pitshayev (Pochayiv), Volhynia.  During WWI (while he was still a child), he was evacuated with his parents to central Russia.  Just after the war they returned home, and he was soon attending religious elementary school.  He also studied in a state school.  He later attended the Vilna Hebrew teachers’ seminary (run by Dr. Sh. Y. Tsharno).  In 1933 he received his teacher’s diploma and left Vilna.  In 1939 he again came to Vilna and was active in Zionist work.  In 1941 he made his way, via Russia and Turkey, to the land of Israel and became a teacher in the Ben-Yehuda high school in Tel Aviv.  After the Holocaust he wrote a long poem concerning the town of Pochayiv entitled: “Nishto shoyn s’shtetl” (This town is no more), published in Pitshayever yizker-bukh (Remembrance volume for Pochayiv) (Philadelphia, 1960), pp. 143-88.  He also placed an article there concerning his fellow local Charles Zalts.  He later published in Hebrew a series of volumes of poetry, such as: Ben habetarim (Among the Betar members) (Tel Aviv, 1942), 119 pp.; and Ashira lakh, tel-aviv (I shall sing to you, Tel Aviv) (Tel Aviv, 1946/1947), 97 pp., (Jerusalem, 2002/2003), 95 pp.; among others.  He also translated into Hebrew poems by Adam Mickiewicz.  He died in Ramat Gan.

Leyb Vaserman