ITSHE VAGMAN

ITSHE VAGMAN (b. 1890)

            He was born in Przedbórz, Lodz district, Poland, into a poor family.  In his youth he moved with his parents to Warsaw.  He studied in a religious elementary school, Talmud-Torah, and secular subjects at an evening course of study run by the Bund.  He was active in the world of literature from 1907.  He debuted in print—using the pen name “Yitskhok”—with reportage pieces on life in Warsaw in Der fraynd (The friend) (Warsaw, 1912), later publishing literary critical essays in an assortment of periodical publications in Warsaw.  He was among the main contributors to Y. M. Vaysenberg’s Inzer hofenung (Our hope) in Warsaw, in which he published a series of articles on European literature (Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, Feodor Dostoevsky, Stanisław Wyspiański, Władysław Reymont, Henrik Ibsen, Maurice Maeterlinck, Georg Brandes, and others).  He contributed writings as well to: In shtrom (In the current) in Warsaw; Naye prese (New press), Yizker-bukh fun 14 umgekumene yidishe shrayber (Remembrance volume for fourteen murdered Jewish writers)—“Der realizm bay oyzer varshavski” (The realism of Oyzer Varshavski)—Arbeter-vort (Workers’ word), and Unzer vort (Our word)—in Paris, in which he published essays on Perets, Yehoash, Nomberg, Vaysenberg, Horontshik, Kaganovski, and Vogler, among others.  He also wrote under the pseudonyms: Bayis, Dr. Abarbanel, and others.  He was last living in Paris.