NEKHEMYE SIGAL (SEGAL)

NEKHEMYE SIGAL (SEGAL) (August 17, 1878-March 7, 1945)

            He was the older brother of Y. Y. Segal, he was born in Korets, Podolia.  He studied Proskurov, Yarmolinits (Yarmolyntsi), Solobkovits (Solobkovtsy), and Kapitshenits (Kopychyntsi).  He was a follower of the Jewish Enlightenment and was thus driven shamelessly from the house of study.  After his father’s death, he became a village schoolteacher.  He composed poetry in Hebrew.  He was the superintendent of a Hebrew school in a small town.  He later made his way to Canada and worked hard in a factory, until he contracted a lung illness (1922) and had to leave work.  He wrote poetry which was published in a variety of Canadian outlets, such as Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal and the monthly Kanade (Canada) of which he was one of the founders, as well as Idishe velt (Jewish world) in Cleveland, among others.  His poems dealt with motifs concerning ordinary people: preparing for the Sabbath, synagogue study hall, the legend of the paper bridge, higher judgment, the prayer book, funerals, and the like.  He also depicted the place of his birth in Ukraine with affection.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2; Kh. M. Kayzerman-Vital, Idishe dikhter in kanade (Yiddish poets in Canada) (Montreal, 1934), pp. 89-90; Y. Y. Segal, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (March 16, 1945).

Mortkhe Yofe