“BEN AVIGDOR”

Another prominent Hebrew and Yiddish writer and publisher has died in the person of Abraham Leib Shalkowitch, better known under his literary pseudonym of “Ben Avigdor.” Mr. Shalkowitch was born in 1866 in the township of Sludok, in the province of Vilna. He studied in the Yeshiba until the age of eighteen, and made his debut in literature in 1899 with a series of articles in the Hebrew journal, Hameletz. Mr. Shalkowitch was from his earliest days actively connected with the Zionist Movement, and published a large number of articles and pamphlets on the subject, chiefly devoted to propaganda purposes. He was one of the founders of the Yiddish magazine, Der Volksfreund and of the Hebrew daily, Hazman. During the last ten years Mr. Shalkowitch was extremely active as head of the Warsaw firm of publishers, “Central” of which he was one of the founders. A great deal of Yiddish and Hebrew literature published in recent years is to his credit. Mr. Shalkowitch took a leading part in the establishment of the Warsaw Union of Jewish Authors, of which he was Chairman at the time of his death. He visited America in 1908, and was on his return to Warsaw from that country after a second visit, when he died in Carlsbad  where he broke his journey to attend the Twelfth Zionist Congress. The funeral took place in Carlsbad amid marked manifestations of public grief. Mr Nahum Sokolow was Chairman of the funeral arrangements committee. Addresses were delivered at the graveside by Rabbi Dr. Zigler in the name of the Carlsbad Jewish community, by Dr. I. Gottlieb on behalf of the Central Committee of the Zionist Oganisation in Poland, and by Mr. I. M. Fried for the Warsaw Union of Jewish Authors

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