GERSHON POMERANTS (POMERANTZ)

GERSHON POMERANTS (POMERANTZ) (July 16, 1900-December 12, 1968)

            He was born in Sokolov-Podolsk (Sokołów Podlaski), Poland.  At the age of eight days he was orphaned on his father’s side.  He received a traditional education which he enriched through self-education.  Over the years 1918-1929, he lived in Warsaw.  From 1929 he was in Toronto, Canada.  For a time he was director of “Relief Conference for War Victims” in Canada.  He was director (1942-1946) of the principal departments of the Canadian Jewish Congress.  He later owned a Jewish publishing house.  He published: “Gershon pomerants eseyen-biblyotek” (Gershon Pomerants’s library of essays), “Tint un feder” (Ink and pen), and other works.  He debuted in print with poems in Haynt (Today) in Warsaw in 1921.  He went on to publish poems, articles, and essays on Yiddish writers in various journals: Haynt, Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Vokhnshrift far literatur (Weekly writing for literature), Yugnt-veker (Youth alarm), Arbeter-tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper), and Bafrayung (Liberation), among other serials, in Warsaw; Dos yidishe vort (The Yiddish word) in Winnipeg; Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal; Der shpigl (The mirror) in Buenos Aires; Tsukunft (Future), Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture), Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter), and Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor), among others, in New York; Di goldene keyt (The golden chain) and Heymish (Familiar) in Tel Aviv; and Yidisher zhurnal (Jewish journal) in Toronto (of which he was publisher and editor, 1960-1964).  In the last of these, he also published a novel, Der blinder (The blind man); and such feature series as “Ofene diburim” (Open words), “Fun folk tsu folk” (From people to people), and “Tint un feder.”  He published and edited literary collections.  He also wrote under such pen names as: A Sokolover, A Nayer, and Gershuni.  In book form: Geshtaltn fun mayn dor (Figures from my generation) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1971), 254 pp.  He died in Toronto.

Source: Information from Perets Granatshteyn, Pomerants’s neighbor in their shtetl.

Khayim Leyb Fuks

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 425.]