YANKEV ZINGER (JACOB SINGER)

YANKEV ZINGER (JACOB SINGER) (December 25, 1902-May 9, 1963)

            He was born in Tsoyzmer (Sandomierz), Poland.  He studied in religious elementary school, synagogue study chamber, yeshiva, and with private tutors.  He later attended public high school.  During the war between Poland and Soviet Russia, 1919-1920, he served in the 24^th regiment under General Haller, was wounded, and returned to Sandomierz in 1920.  He was active in the local library and drama association.  He was a cofounder of the first secular Jewish school in Sandomierz and for a time also a teacher of Yiddish and history in the school.  He contributed to building a trade union organization for the local Jewish workers.  In 1923 he moved to the United States.  He settled initially in Cleveland, later moving to New York where he graduated “high school”; he also studied in the Workmen’s Circle teachers’ seminary and later, 1926-1944, worked as a teacher in schools of the Workmen’s Circle and the International Workers Order (IWO).  He published correspondence pieces in: Haynt (Today) and Der yud (The Jew) in Warsaw; and Forverts (Forward), Frayhayt (Freedom), and Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor) in New York.  He wrote dramatic works for the schoolroom.  His books include: Dramen (Dramas) (Los Angeles, 1954), which includes Khayim solomon (Haym Solomon), two acts and eight scenes, 114 pp., and Miryems kholem (Miriam’s dream), two acts and seven scenes, 88 pp.; Dramatishe shriftn (Dramatic writings) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1960), including twelve works with different pagination; Der yunger dzheykobs, roman (The young Jacobs, a novel) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1963), 513 pp.  He also contributed to Kalifornyer yontef-bleter (California holiday sheets) in Los Angeles.  He published under such pen names as: Y. Saymon and Arye Tsozmer.  He died in Los Angeles.

Sources: Dr. D. Bridzher, in Kheshbn (Los Angeles) 6 (1955); Der Lebediker, in Tog (New York) (May 23, 1955); Dr. A. Mukdoni, in Tsukunft (New York) (May-June 1955); Dr. A. B. G., in Nyu-yorker vokhnblat (New York) (August 1955); Y. Mestel, in Yidishe kultur (New York) (August-September 1955); Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 3, pp. 2322-23.

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 264.]