Borys Dorfman

Borys Mendelewytsch Dorfman , also Boruch Mendelewytsch Dorfman ( Ukrainian Борис (Борух) Менделевич Дорфман ; jidd .: באָריס (ברוך) דאָרפמאַן;. Scientific transliteration Borys Mendelevyč Dorfman ; * 23. May 1923 in Cahul , Bessarabia , Greater Romania ) is a Ukrainian Yiddish writing Publicist and researcher of the Jewish, especially the Yiddish culture of Galicia .

biography

Borys Dorfman's parents, Mendel Dorfman (* 1888) and his wife Molka, b. Zinger (* 1888), came from wealthy educated merchant families in and around Chisinau in time to Greater Romania belonging Bessarabia lived. While the family on the parents' side spoke Yiddish at home, the everyday language of the Zinger family was Russian. Both families spoke and read Hebrew, Romanian and German fluently. Bory's Dorfman's grandparents and sister Polia were murdered in 1941. The parents were arrested by the Soviets on July 7, 1940 under the pretext of anti-Soviet behavior and Zionism and were later deported, the property including the large library confiscated and destroyed. The father died in Karaganda in 1942 , while the mother was able to return to Kishinev in 1947 and devote herself to Zionist interests.

Borys Dorfman studied civil engineering in Kishinev from 1940 and found employment with his training, first in fortifying the border, and later in Stalingrad, Saratov and Kiseljowsk. After the war he studied materials technology as a distance learning student in Moscow. After very difficult times of collectivization and persecution in Kishinev from 1947 to 1949, Dorfman moved to Lviv in 1949 , where he has lived since then. In 1952 he married Betja Retschister, a philologist. With her he has a son Michael, who is a well-known publicist now living in the USA, and a daughter.

In the Soviet Ukraine Dorfman worked as a civil engineer, among others at the Opera Lviv , and traveled widely with his wife.

During the Soviet era, Dorfman, who always consciously led a religious Jewish life, was committed to Jewish journalism and helped to distribute the only Jewish magazine, “Sowietisch Hejmland”.

In the independent Ukraine he became an active member of the revival of Jewish life in Lviv, for a while he was a member of the board of directors of the Sholem Alejchem Society and, above all, was the co-founder and editor of the newspaper “Shofar”, which has been published since 1990. As a city guide and interested Lviv, he has been actively accompanying the events of city life for many decades and is an important partner in readings and discussions on Jewish topics. He is the last Yiddish-speaking resident of Lviv.

plant

Dorfman has published over 1000 articles on Jewish topics in the Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, English and German press, especially in the newspaper “Shofar”, which he co-founded.

literature

• Ella Orlikova, Boris Dorfman (interview), in: Centropa December 2002, online [2]
• Eva Gruberová, Helmut Zeller, Taxi on Shabbat: a journey to the last Jews of Eastern Europe. CHBeck, Munich 2017, chapter Ukraine.

documentation

• Gabriela von Seltmann, Uwe von Seltmann, Boris Dorfman - A Mentsch, online [3] (Yiddish). (May 24, 2014) (accessed November 30, 2017).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ For the biographical details cf. the English interview with Borys Dorfman [1] ; accessed on November 30, 2017.