Leksikon fun der Nayer Yidisher Literatur

לעקסיקאָן פֿון דער נײַער ייִדישער ליטעראַטור

He was born in Bialystok, descendent of a well-to-do family. Until age seventeen, he studied Talmud, Tanakh, Hebrew and with home tutors Russian and secular subject matter. He graduated from a high school. He studied in Ghent, Kharkov, and Brussels where he received his doctoral degree in economics.

Over the years 1914-1921, he lived in Russia, worked in the Kharkov credit cooperative, and was a member of the Kharkov Jewish community council. He returned to Poland in 1921. He worked there for the Joint Distribution Committee and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. He served as a member of the central committee (1924-1939) of Hitaḥdut (Union). In 1940 he settled in New York where he died.

From 1922 he served as a member of the editorial board of Kooperative Bavegung (Cooperative Movement), in which he wrote on economic matters. He also contributed to: Haynt (Today) (1924-1939), Morgn-Zhurnal (Morning Journal) (1941-1952), and Tog-Morgn-Zhurnal (Day-Morning Journal) (1952-1964). He acquired a name for himself for his travel descriptions of Jewish communities around the world, which he published in many newspapers—his articles were syndicated in a number of countries—and later in books. He also wrote in Polish.

His works include:

Entshtehung, Entviklung un Grund-Printsipen fun der Kredit-Kooperatsye (Creation, Development, and Basic Principles of the Credit Cooperative) (Warsaw, 1927), 32 pp.;

Lender un sHtet, Rayze Ayndrukn, Mit Bilder (Countries and Cities, Travel Impressions, with Images) (Vilna: B. Kletskin, 1930), 324 pp.;

Ratnfarband 1936, Rayze Ayndrukn (Soviet Union 1936, Travel Impressions) (Warsaw: Jewish Universal Library, 1937), 143 pp.;

Ekzotishe Rayzes (Exotic Travels) (Warsaw: Jewish Universal Library, 1938), 142 pp.;

Bleter fun a Geto-Tog-Bukh (Pages from a Ghetto Diary) (New York: Kh. H. Glants, 1943). 144 pp.;

Poyln—1946, Ayndrukn fun a Rayze (Poland, 1946, Impressions from a Trip) (Buenos Aires: Association of Polish Jews in Argentina, 1947), 191 pp.;

A Velt Vos iz Farbay, Kapitlekh Zikhroynes (A World Gone By, Chapters of Memoirs) (Buenos Aires: Association of Polish Jews in Argentina, 1949), 368 pp.;

Mayn Rayze Arum der Velt (My Voyage Around the World) (Buenos Aires: Unzer Bukh, 1951), 274 pp.;

Durkh Umbakante Lender (Through Unknown Countries) (Rio de Janeiro: Monte Scopus, 1954), 397 pp.;

Masoes R’ Khayim (The Travels of R. Khayim) (Rio, 1957), 421 pp.;

Mit Yidn, Tsvishn Indyaner, Neger un Araber, a Nesie Iber Dray Kontinentn (With Jews, Among Indians, Negroes, and Arabs, a Voyage Over Three Continents) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1960), 373 pp.;

Fun Moskve biz Eyver-Hayardn (From Moscow to Transjordan) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1961), 330 pp.;

Tsvishn Yidn in Vayte Lender (Among Jews in Distant Countries) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1964), 470 pp.

Translations of his work into Hebrew: Bedarkhe tevel (On the Paths of the World) (Tel Aviv: Tverski, 1954), 236 pp.; Mehakremlin ad ha-piramidot (From the Kremlin to the Pyramids) (Jerusalem: Nyuman, 1959), 232 pp. Some of his books appeared as well in English, Polish, French, and Spanish translations.

“Dr. Shoshkes was the last of the great Jewish wanderers,” wrote Shmuel-Leyb Shnayderman, “[a man] who, in their spirit, was fired by an unquenchable thirst to reach forgotten, displaced Jewish communities in the most distant, secluded corners of our planet. His travel writings are a mixture of flashy observations, colorful descriptions, ideas about Jewish fate, and personal reminiscences of the past near and far.”

Berl Cohen