Elias Lipiner ^People

He madehis way to Brazil in 1935, where a sister of his was living. For a time he worked as apeddler but he had no success with it. He went on to serve as editor of Sanpauler yidishe tsaytung (São Paolo Yiddish newspaper). He then became a teacher of Yiddish and Hebrew at theschool Hatehiya (The revival).When the government of Getúlio Vargas published a decree that teachers at Jewish schools had to possess a diploma from a general middle school, Lipiner learned Portuguese and passed the examination. In 1941 his book Oysyes dertseyln (The let- ters explain) appeared with the subtitle: Vor un legende in der geshikhte fun yidishn alef-beys (Reality and legend in the history of the Jewish alphabet) (São Paolo, 119 pp., with drawings by Lazar Segal), an overview of the history of square script, its origins, development, symbolic meaning, the legends around the letters according to the Kabbala and Talmud, and more. Expanded and deepened, ti was reprinted under the title Di geshikhte fun a fargetert ksav (The history of an idolized writing) (Buenos Aires: YIVO, 1956), 331 pp.Around 1944 when Yiddish was forbidden in Brazil, for atime he was the un- official editor of the Portuguese Jewish weekly (Where will we go). He also wrote for the journal Ineynem (Altogether) in Buenos Aires, a publication of the CultureCongress, and elsewhere. He studied law in Rio de Janeiro and graduated as a lawyer.