FURMAN, YISROEL

FURMAN, YISROEL (Israel Fuhrmann; 1890 or 1887–1967), Romanian-born Yiddish folklorist. Born in Sereth, Furman lived in Czernowicz from 1920 to 1939 and after World War II in Bakau, Transylvania. A doctor of jurisprudence (University of Vienna), he worked as an attorney and was also a Yiddish poet and a key supporter of Yiddish schools in Bukovina but is best known as a Yiddish folklorist. He settled in Jerusalem in 1965 and worked intensively on his magnum opus, Yidishe Shprikhverter un Rednsartn: Gezamlt in Rumenye – Besarabye, Bukovine, Moldeve un Transilvanye ("Yiddish Proverbs and Expressions: Collected in Romania – Bessarabia, Bukovina, Moldovia and Transylvania," Tel Aviv, 1968), based on expressions actually heard in, or from natives of, these regions; he also published a study of the terminology of bakers (Yidishe Shprakh, 33 (1974), 32–37). In his later years he turned to writing poems, which were published only on a website devoted to his poetry (http://home.interlog.com/FURMAN, YISROELjfuhrman). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: B. Kagan, Leksikon fun Yidishe Shraybers, 439; Y. Paner, in: Di Goldene Keyt, 65 (1969), 260–62. (Leonard Prager (2nd ed.)