YANKEV KATZ

YANKEV KATZ (1896-February 15, 1918)

            He was born in Great Soletshnik (Šalčininkai), Vilna district, Lithuania.  He studied in religious elementary school, later becoming a leather cutter and stitcher for boot making.  He stood close to the Bund.  He debuted in print with two poems in the collection Lite (Lithuania) 1 (Vilna, 1914).  He later contributed to Unzer shtime (Our voice) and Lite 2, among other serials, in Vilna.  His poem “Der vilder yung” (The wild youth), in Unzer shtime (August 20, 1920), demonstrated talent in this young worker-poet.  In the winter of 1916, he was taken by the Germans into forced labor and tortured to death.

Sources: Shmuel Niger, in Di naye velt (Vilna) 1-2 (1919), p. 105; Unzer shtime (Vilna) (August 13, 1920).

Khayim Leyb Fuks