Thursday 15 June 2017

YANKEV-TSVI LEMEL

YANKEV-TSVI LEMEL (1901-May 25, 1964)
            He was born in Sosnovits (Sosnowiec), Poland.  Until age ten he attended religious elementary school, and then losing his father, he had to become a worker.  In 1919 he moved to Belgium, settled in Antwerp where for a time he worked as a private Yiddish tutor and later as a salesman.  During the years of the Nazi occupation, he lived in various places in Flanders, mainly in the town of Laar (Laere).  He returned to Antwerp in 1945.  He debuted in print with a story—“A vinter-rayze” (A winter journey)—in Di yudishe prese (The Jewish press) in Antwerp (1923), edited by Dr. A. Kubovitski, and from that point he went on to publish stories and correspondence pieces on Jewish life in Belgium in: Yidishe prese (Jewish press), Belgishe bleter (Belgium leaves), and Izraelitish vokhnblat (Jewish weekly newspaper) in Antwerp; Yidishe vokh (Jewish week), Belgishe tog (Belgian day), and Unzer vort (Our word) in Brussels; Unzer haynt (Our today) and Yisroel shtime (Voice of Israel) in Tel Aviv; Unzer vort (Our word) in Paris; and Der tog (The day), Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal), and Der amerikaner (The American) in New York; among others.  In book form he published: Teg fun shrek, derinerungen fun der milkhome, 1940-1945 (Days of horror, experiences from the war, 1940-1945) (Paris, 1962), 229 pp.  He was awarded the 1961 prize from Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.  He also wrote under such pen names as: Y. Rivkes.  He died in Antwerp.

Sources: D. M., in Der amerikaner (New York) (June 22, 1959); Khayim Leyb Fuks, “Beynish Zilbershteyn,” in Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur (see: http://yleksikon.blogspot.ca/2016/08/beynish-zilbershteyn-bajnysz.html).
Khayim Leyb Fuks


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