LEYZER VAYNAPEL

LEYZER VAYNAPEL (April 1, 1906-July 31, 1981)

            He was born in Warsaw, into a working-class family.  He graduated from a secular Jewish school.  Until 1936 he worked in the administration of Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), thereafter moving to Paris where he worked as a teacher in supplementary schools for the Children’s Commission at 14 Rue Paradis.  During the Nazi occupation, he fought with the Maquis against the Germans.  In 1945 he returned to Paris and renewed his work in the Jewish school system.  He published poetry, children’s stories, and translations in Naye prese (New press) in Paris.  He was the author (with L. Pludermakher) of a textbook: Ikh lern yidish (I am studying Yiddish), with illustrations by Kalmen Glieb (Paris, 1947), 171 pp.  He translated (with L. Goldin and Y. K. Fogel) Romain Rolland’s Mahatma gandi (Mahatma Gandhi) (Warsaw, 1927); and (with Y. K. Fogel) the popular booklet by Julian Borchardt, Vi azoy tsu dertsien kinder on kantshik (How do we educate our children without a whip? [original: Wie sollen wir unsere Kinder ohne Prügel erziehen?]) (Warsaw, 1930), 83 pp.  He lived until his death in Paris and worked in a French Jewish publishing house.

Source: N. Gros, in Di naye prese (Paris) (March 26, 1947).