J.D. (Yitzhak Dov) Berkowitz, a son-in-law of the late Sholem Aleichem, novelist, critical journalist, winner of many prizes, and a translator most famous for his 15-volume translation of Sholem Aleichem’s Yiddish works into Hebrew, died here today at the age of 81.
Death came at the Municipal Hospital. Funeral services have been scheduled for tomorrow. The remains will be interred in the Old Cemetery here, where other famous Jewish writers — among them Max Nordau, Chaim Nashman Bialik and Shaul Tchernichovsky–are buried.
Born in Slutsk, Russia, in October 1885, Mr. Berkowitz started early in life to write both in Hebrew and Yiddish, and first gained world recognition when collections of his short stories appeared in Cracow in Hebrew and in Warsaw in Yiddish, both in 1910. He married Esther Rabinowitz, a daughter of Sholem Aleichem, in 1905.
Very active in both major Jewish languages as writer, editor and critic, he first came to the United States with his father-in-law in 1905, returned to Russia, lived in the United States again from 1914 to 1921, and finally settled permanently in Palestine in 1928. He received the Tchernichovsky Prize twice for his monumental translation of Sholem Aleichem into Hebrew; was awarded the Bialik Prize in 1954 and the Israel State Prize in 1958 for his 11-volume collection of his own works, and last year again received the Bialik Prize from the Municipality of Tel Aviv for his book entitled "Chapters from My Childhood."
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
