Asher Beylin (1881–1948)

Asher Beilin or Beylin was born in Kiev, present-day Ukraine. His father was a Hebrew teacher and author who inspired in him a love of literature and the Bible. From 1901 to 1905, Beylin worked intermittently as Sholom Aleichem's secretary. He studied in Switzerland and took exams to qualify as a teacher, and then moved to London in 1906. There he became a journalist. In 1933, he settled in Jerusalem in the British Mandate of Palestine. Beylin contributed extensively to the Hebrew and Yiddish press, edited Yiddish newspapers, and in his later years wrote for the Tel Aviv-based daily newspaper Davar. His published writings included two plays, "Pasportn" (1917) and "Banim li-Gevulam" (Sons to Their Border, 1945); reminiscences of Yosef Haim Brenner, with whom he collaborated for many years, and of Sholom Aleichem; and a novel called Al Belimah (On Nothing, 1928). His selected works were published posthumously in 1956.