Ribko, Volf-Leyb
December 5, 1896–December 25, 1955
The author of stories, he was born in Ostrov-Mazovyetsk (Ostrów-Mazowiecka), Poland. He attended religious elementary school and yeshivas. In 1918 he moved to Vilna and in 1927 made his way to South Africa.
He worked as a teacher of Hebrew and history in the Vilna Jewish senior high school and later in Jewish schools in Johannesburg.
He debuted in print in 1929 with a story in Forverts (Forward) in New York. He was a regular contributor to Der Afrikaner (The African) (1928-1932), Afrikaner idishe Tsaytung (African Jewish newspaper) from its founding in 1936, and the daily Dorem Afrikaner Shtime (Voice of South Africa) (1938, for eight months). He also placed work in: Di Idishe Post (The Jewish Mail) (1937), Foroys (Onward) (1937), Dorem Afrike (South Africa), Dorem-Afrikaner Zamlbukh (South African Anthology), and for Hebrew periodicals.
His work also appeared in Shmuel Rozhanski’s anthology Dorem Afrike (Buenos Aires, 1971).
In book form:
Yidishe Geshikhte, Mitlalter (Jewish History, Middle Ages), a textbook with E. Y. Goldshmidt (Vilna: Hirsh Mets, 1925), 229 pp.;
Af di Pleynen fun Afrike, Bilder un Dertseylungen (On the Plains of Africa, Images and Stories) (Johannesburg, 1961), 320 pp.
Pen name: V. Hirshzon.
He died in Johannesburg.