YANKEV ZONSHAYN (JAKUB ZONSZAJN)

YANKEV ZONSHAYN (JAKUB ZONSZAJN) (January 10, 1914-February 7, 1962)

            He was born in Łuków, Shedlets (Siedlce) district, Poland.  He studied in religious primary school and yeshiva.  In 1928 he moved with his parents to Zhikhlin (Żychlin), and from 1930 in Warsaw.  In 1939 at the time of the Nazi German invasion of Poland, he escaped to Vilna.  During the subsequent war years, he survived in the Soviet Union, from where in 1947 he returned to Poland.  He began his literary activities with a novella, entitled In a keler-shtub (In a basement apartment), published in Unzer ekspres (Our express) in Warsaw (1932).  From that point in time, he contributed poems, stories, novellas, articles on literature, reportage pieces, and translations to: Unzer ekspres, Vokhnshrift far literatur (Weekly writings for literature), Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper), Foroys (Onward), Moment (Moment), and Radyo (Radio)—in Warsaw; and after WWII in: Dos naye lebn (The new life), Folksshtime (Voice of the people), and Yidishe shriftn (Jewish writings) in Lodz-Warsaw; and Nidershlezye (Lower Silesia) in Vrotslav (Wrocław); and Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture) in New York.  He published translations of modern Yiddish poetry in Polish periodicals.  Among his books: Profesor shvartsshteyn, drame in dray aktn, finf bilder (Professor Shvartsshteyn, a drama in three acts and five scenes), set during Hitler’s Holocaust (Warsaw, 1950), 66 pp. (staged in the Yiddish theater in Poland); Der ratsyonalizator yitskhok fetner (The rationalizer Yitskhok Fetner) (Warsaw, 1953), 68 pp.; Vort un nign (Word and tune), poetry (Warsaw, 1959), 134 pp.  In Polish: Rozdroża (Crossroads), poetry, translated by the writers Kashutski and Kovaltshik (Vrotslav, 1957), 16 pp.  He poetry was represented in the Polish anthology Imiona niepokoju (Names of anxiety) (Wrocław, 1958), and in the German anthology of modern Polish lyric, Lektion der Stille, neue polnische Lyrik (Lessons of silence, new Polish poetry) (1959).  His plays, Freylekh in shtetl (Happy in town) and Hershele ostropolyer (Hershele Ostropolyer), were staged in Poland.  He died in Warsaw.

Sources: Sh. Lastik, in Folksshtime (Warsaw) 29 (February 1951); Y. Grudberg, in Yidishe shriftn (Warsaw) 3 (1951); Y. Mestl, in Yidishe kultur (New York) (July 1951); D. Sfard, in Yidishe shriftn 4 (1953); M. Mirski, in Folksshtime (April 3 and April 9, 1953); Mirski, in Yidishe shriftn (June 1959); Y. Likhtnboym, in Hadoar (New York) (February 3, 1956); A. Slutski, in Folksshtime 107 (2001) (July 1959).

Khayim Leb Fuks

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 256.]