YISROEL VIGODSKI

YISROEL VIGODSKI (August 5, 1888-early May 1972)

            He was born in Kosov (Kosów), Grodno district, Russian Poland, into a poor family.  He studied in religious primary school and in yeshivas, and in 1906 he received ordination into the rabbinate.  In 1907 he moved to the United States and became a laborer.  He was active in the Jewish labor movement.  He was a leader in Jewish school curricula in New Jersey.  He began writing while still a student and debuted in print with a story in Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor) in New York in 1915.  From that point he published poems, stories, and impressions of New York in: Forverts (Forward), Tog (Day), and Dzhoyrzi-shtime (Voice of Jersey), among other serials.  He was co-editor of the literary publication Ineynem (Altogether), published by the Yehoash writers’ union in Jersey City and Bayonne in 1930.  He died in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Source: Zalmen reyzen-arkhiv (Zalmen Reyzen archive) (New York, YIVO).