YITSKHOK-YOYSEF POYZNER

YITSKHOK-YOYSEF POYZNER (b. 1881)

            He was born in Ryasna (Rasna), near Amtshislov (Mstislavl), Byelorussia.  Until age twenty-five, he studied in yeshivas, a distinguished disciple of the Chofets-Chaim.  He gained renown as the Rasna prodigy.  In 1906 he came to Libave (Liepāja), and from 1908 he was in Warsaw where he worked for a time in an emigration office.  From 1910 until WWII, he was a regular contributor to Der moment (The moment) in Warsaw, initially as a proofreader and in later years as a journalist and news-writer.  From 1910 he was writing stories, essays on Jewish and general philosophy, and the like.  He contributed to the anthology Aroves (Willow twigs) (Warsaw, 1912).  In book form: Der biterer tropn (Whisky), stories (Warsaw, 1908), 16 pp.; Malkhes hameshiekh, religyezer manifest (Kingdom of the Messiah, a religious manifesto) (Warsaw, 1925), 300 pp.  According to Hillel Tsaytlin, Poyzner “expressed genuine ideas about Jewish ethics.”  This volume, on which the author worked for thirty years, is the only volume in Yiddish of such scope.  He also penned Di geshikhte fun a mentsh (The history of a man), parts of an autobiography, vol. 1 (Warsaw, 1939), 228 pp.  After the Nazi bombardment of Warsaw in September 1939, there was no further information on him.  He possibly died in early September 1939 in Warsaw.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2; Hillel Tsaytlin, in Der moment (Warsaw) (January 8, 1926); Yidisher gezelshaftlekher leksikon (Jewish community handbook) (Warsaw, 1939), p. 807; Yidishe shriftn (Lodz), almanac (1946); Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 2 (Montreal, 1947), pp. 54-56; M. Mozes, in Fun noentn over (New York) 2 (1956), p. 290; Sh. Shreberk, Zikhroynes (Memoirs) (Tel Aviv, 1955), pp. 157-58; Arn Tsaytlin, in Shmuel niger-bukh (Volume for Shmuel Niger) (New York, 1958), pp. 44-54; Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York)  (January 27, 1961); Avrom Zak, In onheyb fun a friling, kapitlekh zikhroynes (At the start of spring, chapters of memoirs) (Buenos Aires: Farband fun poylishe yidn, 1962), see index.

Khayim Leyb Fuks