Ury Benador (pen name of Simon Moise Grinberg; May 1, 1895 – November 23, 1971) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n playwright and prose writer. Born in Mihăileni,

Botoșani County Botoșani County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in Western Moldavia (encompassing a few villages in neigbhouring Suceava County from Bukovina to the west as well), with the capital town ( ro, Oraș reședință de județ) at Botoșani. ...

, his parents were Moise Fridl, a Yiddish-language writer, and his wife Liba (''née'' Schmidt). A self-educated man, his first published work was a one-act play that appeared in the

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally ...

''Lumea'' in 1924. This was subsequently included in his first book, ''5 acte'' (1925). A member of the ''

Sburătorul ''Sburătorul'' was a Romanian modernist literary magazine and literary society, established in Bucharest in April 1919. Led by Eugen Lovinescu, the circle was instrumental in developing new trends and styles in Romanian literature, ranging from a ...

'' circle, he won the Romanian Dramatic and Music Critics' Association Prize in 1924. Magazines that ran his work include ''

Viața Românească ''Viața Românească'' (, "The Romanian Life") is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania. Formerly the platform of the left-wing traditionalist trend known as poporanism, it is now one of the Writers' Union of Romania's main venues. ...

''. ''Lumea literară'', ''Rampa'', ''

Revista Fundațiilor Regale ''Revista Fundațiilor Regale'' ("The Review of Royal Foundations") was a monthly literary, art and culture magazine published in Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeas ...

'', ''Albina'' and ''Gazeta literară''. In 1939, he took part in a congress of intellectuals for peace held in Paris. A leftist, he became a leader of the pro-

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ro, Partidul Comunist Român, , PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that woul ...

Jewish Democratic Committee The Jewish Democratic Committee or Democratic Jewish Committee ( ro, Comitetul Democrat Evreiesc, CDE, also ''Comitetul Democrat Evreesc'', ''Comitetul Democratic Evreiesc''; he, הוועד הדמוקרטי היהודי; hu, Demokrata Zsidó Komi ...

soon after World War II.Andrei Corbea-Hoisie
Benador, Ury
in ''

The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe ''The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe'' is a two-volume, English-language reference work on the history and culture of Eastern Europe Jewry in this region, prepared by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and published by Yale Univ ...

'' In 1948, after the establishment of a

communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

, he was part of the first leadership committee of the

Romanian Writers' Union The Writers' Union of Romania (), founded in March 1949, is a professional association of writers in Romania. It also has a subsidiary in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova. The Writers' Union of Romania was created by the communist regime by taking ...

. Until 1955, he was secretary of the State Jewish Theater. His prose works (including ''Ghetto veac XX'', 1934; ''Hilda'', 1936; and ''"Gablonz". Magazin Universal'', 1961) are documentary and analytical in nature, aiming to capture on their canvas the social and moral environment of Romanian Jewish society in the first half of the 20th century.Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. I, p. 153. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. In a contemporaneous review, criti
Ion Simuț
took the position that Benador "was never more than a second-rate author". Ion Simuț
"Gelozia maladivă"
in ''Romania Literară'', nr. 43/2005

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benador, Ury 1895 births 1971 deaths People from Botoșani County Jewish Romanian writers 20th-century Romanian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Romanian novelists