I have in front of me a volume of Hebrew poetry entitled “Gesharim” (Bridges). It was printed in Debrecen, Hungary, in 1942, and was one of the small number of Hebrew books which appeared in Europe during the years of the Holocaust. Only a few copies of this volume have survived.
There are personal poems, intimate thoughts and feelings, verses of dreams and longing, of faith and prayer…
We stumble on all the paths,
But the road to Thee is straight.
We sin all our days,
But seek Thee in Distress.
There are also national poems, describing, bewailing the tragedy and fate of our people.
There is rhythm in the rhymes, they flow gently and softly, the poet’s language is rich, but not profuse. He uses his words sparingly. Often a few lines are sufficient to conjure up an image, an idea.
The book does not carry the name of the author. He hides behind the pseudonym: Ben Shlomo.
Thirty-five years have passed since the book first appeared. During that period the author has gone through much. He survived the Nazi rule in Hungary. After World War II, before he came to the United States he lived as a refugee in Vienna.
During all these years he engaged in a variety of activities, but he never stopped writing. Since then three more volumes of his poetry have appeared, but his desire for anonymity has remained unchanged. The last two books, printed in Israel in 1968 and 1973 respectively, appeared under the pen name: Zvi Yair.
Now I do not want to say that the real identity of Zvi Yair in unknown. His real name is known quite well in literary circles in Israel. Dov Sadan, the noted Hebrew writer, wrote an introduction to Yair’s latest book and there he reveals his real name. The critics who praised Yair’s poetry and the Hebrew writers who correspond with him know his name. The Beth Jacob high schools and teachers’ seminary of Israel put out a literary anthology for use in their institutions. They included a number of Yair’s poems. They, too, know who he is. Similarly, Beth Rivka, the Lubavitch girls’ seminary of Kfar Chabad published a textbook with several of Yair’s poems.
What I wanted to say is that Yair’s many personal friends and acquaintances are probably unaware of his literary activity.
Yair is a partner in a Brooklyn building construction company. Those who are close to him know that he is a great Talmid Chacham and a diligent communal worker. He give shiurim and lectures. But only few of his friends and acquaintances know that in his free time he writes under the name of Zvi Yair; only few of them know that he is an important Hebrew poet, one of the small group of contemporary religious Hebrew poets, one of the very few Hebrew poets who lives in the United States.
He is a Lubavitch Chasid. “Di Yiddishe Heim,” the organ of the Lubavitch women carries from time to time Yiddish articles by Zvi Yair. Only few of his Lubavitch friends associate him with these articles, and still fewer know that the same Zvi Yair also writes Hebrew poetry.
Because this man simply does not talk about his poetry. He loves anonymity.
In accordance with his wishes, we here, too, will not identify him, but simply write about Zvi Yair.
He was born in Budapest during the first World War and grew up in a village in Subcarpathian Ruthenia. He studied with private teachers, most of whom came from neighboring Galicia. One teacher, in particular, influenced him greatly: Reb Yossel Vilner of Nadvorna. Reb Yossel was a great Talmid Chacham, knew several languages and was well versed in modern literature. Zvi studied with him for six years from the age of six until twelve. When Reb Yossel left the village, the boy could not adjust to other teachers and for some time studied on his own. He later attended the Yeshivas at Slotvina, Halmin and Galanta wand still later went to Pressburg to engage in secular studies.
While in Pressburg, he began to write for a Yiddish weekly which appeared in Munkacs. This was his literary debut. Three persons had a great influence on Yair’s determination to be literary active: his teacher Reb Yossel Vilner, the Agudist leader Dr. Isaac Breuer, and a poetess and painter, whose father and husband were both leaders of the orthodox Jewish communities of Hungary. Yair was an avid reader of Dr. Breuer’s books and articles. In 1937 he met Dr. Breuer personally at the third Kenessia Gedola of the Agudath Israel in Marienbad and a close friendship developed between the two. For several years afterwards they kept up a steady correspondence. As for the poetess and painter, Yair met her first in 1940 in Budapest and under her influence began to write poetry.
In that year, Yair married Dvora, the daughter of a Chasid of Sanz who lived in Debrecen and he settled in that city. There he wrote the Hebrew poems which were published in “Gesharim,” his first volume of verse.
The volume made a great impression, particularly the poem “Assefat Nemirov”. This poem described the fate of the 100,000 Jews of Subcarpathian Ruthenia, who in 1941 were deported by the Hungarian authorities to the Ukraine and murdered there. The poem was translated into Hungarian and recited in synagogues. It spread from city to city. It was sung in the dark days of spring and summer 1944 when trains filled with Hungarian Jews rolled towards Auschwitz.
Yair himself had to leave Debrecen soon after the publication of his book. Like other young Jews he was called up to serve in the Hungarian forced labor battalions which were sent to the German-Russian front in Ukraine. However, unlike many others, Yair did not believe that the men were only taken for labor. He had been alerted to the real meaning of the labor battalions by his father who living on the Polish-Hungarian border had helped Polish Jews escape into Hungary and from them had learned of the fate of the Jews of the Ukraine and of those who were sent there.
Yair escaped to Budapest where he went into hiding. Later he brought his family to that city.
(To be continued)
The Jewish Press, February 18, 1977
During the black days of the German occupation of Hungary, Zvi Yair, his wife and their three daughters lived in hiding in Budapest and in other places. They remained in Hungary until 1948 when they left for Austria.
In Vienna, Yair served as editor of “Die Stimme Israels” a fortnightly journal published by Benjamin Schreiber who was president of the Agudath Israel and Po’ale Agudat Israel of Austria.
“Our paper was the only religious Jewish organ in the German language in Europe and was widely read in religious Jewish circles,” Yair told me. “Contributors included the late Dr. Salomon Ehrmann. We published in serial form “Weltwende” a book by the late Dr. Isaac Breuer. The manuscript was sent to us from Israel by Dr. Mordechai Breuer, a son of Dr. Isaac Breuer.”
In Vienna Yair also published “Nativ,” a volume of Hebrew poetry. A section of the book, entitled Mul Tehom: (Confronting the Abyss”) is dedicated to the memory of the martyrs of the Holocaust. It includes poems, written in the years 1941-1944, lamenting the tragedy of our nation.
Early in 1952, Yair and his family came to the United States. He entered the educational field in which he was active for about ten years. he was the principal of a Lubavitch school and taught at various Yeshiva day schools.
He comes from a Hassidic home, devotees of the Hasidic dynasties of Zhydichov-Dolina. Here in the U.S. he encountered for the first time Habad Hasidism and was captivated by it.
“Prior to assuming my duties at the Lubavitch girls school I had an audience with the Rebbe of Lubavitch,” Yair told me. “We discussed problems of education and I was deeply impressed by the Rebbe’s approach and views. Later I attended a Fabrengen.
“Until then I had been used to hearing Rebbes ‘say’ Torah for a quarter or half an hour – but here the Rebbe was holding forth for hours: Lomdus, Hakire and Hassidus. I eagerly drank his words. He opened up new vistas to me, gave new direction to my thoughts. I was enchanted.
“I am a great admirer of the Rebbe.” Yair who has immersed himself in Habad thought, continued. “My three daughters are married to Habadniks. One is an important and dynamic shaliah of the Rebbe in Italy. Another is the principal of a Yeshiva in the State of Maine. My grandchildren are brought up as Lubavitch Hasidim.”
Yair had been reticent about his literary activities, but he felt that he was not permitted to hide them from the Rebbe.
“I told the Rebbe that I was writing poetry and he asked me to show him some of the poems,” Yair said. “The Rebbe has a great understanding for literature and he encouraged me in my literary ventures.”
Yair’s poems have appeared in a variety of publications, including “HaDoar,” the New York Hebrew weekly, the Israeli religious dailies “HaTzofeh” and She’arim.” Keshet”, a Tel Aviv literary journal and “Mabua” published by religious writers in Jerusalem.
In 1968 Yair published his “AL HaHof,” a volume of poems on a variety of themes. It is an impressive collection. The poet’s faith and humility shine through the melodious thymes, which are filled with thought and metaphor. In this book we see for the first time Yair the Habadnik. Several poems are devoted to the personality of the Rebbe.
Five years later, Eked publishers of Tel Aviv brought out Yair’s 300 page “Merosh Tzurim.” The book was well received. Yeshurun Keshet, a well known Hebrew writer and essayist, devoted a full page article in “Ha’aretz” to an analysis of Yair’s poetry. Authors including the late Avraham Kariv, outstanding Hebrew poet, and readers wrote to Yair expressing their thanks and appreciation.
[A concise and precise characterization of Yair’s poetry was given by my good friend, Professor Jacob Kabakoff, the noted researcher in the history of Hebrew literature in America. May I be permitted to conclude this article with Kabakoff’s words:]
The Jewish Press, Friday, February 25, 1977