YISROEL
LILYENSHTEYN (b. December 30, 1899)
He was born in Warsaw, and he was
later an employee in the association of traveling salesmen and a waiter in a
restaurant, among other occupations.
Over the years 1920-1923, he lived in Berlin, where he worked in a
tailoring workshop. He later settled in
France and worked as a bookbinder and later became a merchant traveling from
market to market. He was a cofounder of
the Association of Former Students in Jewish Public Schools in Poland and chairman
of the Jewish traveling merchant association in Paris. He was an active fighter in the underground
resistance movement during WWII, at first in Paris and later in Grenoble. After liberation he returned to Paris. His wife was deported by the Nazis and
murdered at Auschwitz. He debuted in
print with a humorous piece in the publication Bontshe shvayg (Bontshe the silent) in Warsaw (1916), later
becoming a principal contributor to and editor of Der yidisher kleynhendler (The Jewish retailer) in Paris (1932-1938). He contributed to the illegal Yiddish press
in France (1941-1944) and from 1944 was a regular contributor to Arbeter-vort (Workers’ word) in Paris, for
which he ran the column “Opklangen” (Echoes).
From time to time he wrote as well for Unzer shtime (Our voice) and Unzer
vort (Our word) in Paris. His travel
impressions from Spain were reprinted in: Folksshtime
(People’s voice) in Warsaw, and Folksblat
(People’s newspaper) and Fray yisroel
(Free Israel) in Tel Aviv. He also
published under such pen names as: Zhak, Izak, Yisroel mitn Pekl, and A
Marshan. He was last living in Paris.
Khayim Leyb Fuks
(Translator
note. After this entry appeared in print,
he published: Zikhroynes fun mayn lebn,
varshe-pariz [Memoirs of my life, Warsaw-Paris] [Paris, 1977], 90 pp.—JAF)
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