YITSKHOK BROT (ITZHAK BRAT)

YITSKHOK BROT (ITZHAK BRAT) (b. April 27, 1910)

He was born in Rafalovka (Rafalivka), Volhynia.  In 1926 he graduated from the business course in Brest, Lithuania.  For a time he worked as a teacher in a number of different towns.  He supported the “Heḥaluts” (Pioneer) movement.  He began publishing correspondence pieces in 1926, later articles and stories, in the weekly newspaper Voliner shtime (Voice of Volhynia) in Rovno; he also wrote correspondence pieces for Moment (Moment) in Warsaw.  He also translated for “Groshn biblyotek” (Penny library) in Warsaw.  He spent the years of WWII in Soviet Russia, returning to Poland in 1945.  In 1946 he was in Germany, and in 1947-1949 he served as a member of the editorial board of Dos vort (The word), organ of Poale-tsiyon in German.  In 1950 he was a contributing editor to Undzer veg (Our way), central organ of liberated Jews in Germany.  From 1951 he was living in Israel.  He worked as a contributing editor to the first Yiddish newspaper in the state of Israel, Dos vort-di tsayt (The word-the time), as well as on the editorial board of Letste nayes-yidishe tsaytung (Late news-Yiddish newspaper).  He was living in Ramat-Gan.  In book form: In heymish shpign (In a familiar mirror) (Tel AvivL Hamenorah, 1974), 382 pp.; Aropgelakht fun hartsn, humor un satire (Laughed from the heart, humor and satire) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1976), 335 pp.

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 115.]