YANKEV BRODSKI

YANKEV BRODSKI (November 5, 1892-December 28, 1980)

He was born in the town of Lishtin (Lishchyn), Ukraine.  His father, Avrom-Zev Hakohen, was an itinerant Talmud teacher with an artistic nature, who used to carve various items out of wood.  His mother, Bas-sheva, was a tailor, a mother of seven children, and the family breadwinner.  He studied with his father.  From 1912 he was living in the United States—in Chicago—where he worked in various trades.  In 1917 he was in Palestine as a member of the Jewish Legion.  In 1920 he returned to the United States, settled in New York, working as a laborer and at the same time studying at the Jewish teachers’ seminary.  In 1930 he spent nine months on a trip with his parents to Soviet Russia.  He was one of the Chicago poetry group.  He began publishing poems in Yidishe velt (Jewish world) (Chicago, 1917).  He contributed songs and poems to: Tog (Day), Kundes (Prankster), and Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter)—in New York; Ineynem (Altogether), Kultur (Culture), Oyfbroyz (Spurt), and the anthology Midvest-mayrev (Midwest-west), among others (all in Chicago).  He published the following books: Barg aroyf, lider un poemen (Uphill, songs and poems) (Chicago: Tseshinski farlag, 1934), 160 pp.; Mayn lid, mayn tfile (My song, my prayer) (Chicago, 1955), 141 pp. (with drawings by the author).  He died in Chicago.

Sources: Dr. A. Mukdoni, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (March 13, 1935); V. Gotesman, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (January 11, 1935); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Idisher kemfer (June 3, 1955); Midvest-mayrev (Chicago, 1933), pp. 37-40.