YITSKHOK PERKOV

YITSKHOK PERKOV (b. August 15, 1870)

           He was born in Boslev (Bohuslav), Kiev district, Ukraine.  Until age thirteen he studied in religious elementary school, later graduating from a Russian school.  He had a talent for drawing and became a photographer.  At age sixteen he wrote (using the pseudonym “A boslever yid” [A Bohuslav Jew]) two articles for Alexander Tsederboym’s Yudisher folks-blat (Jewish people’s newspaper) (1886), departed for Odessa, and joined socialist circles there.  In 1887 he came to London, served as secretary for a time for the International Working Men’s Educational Club, and wrote articles for Arbayter fraynd (Workers’ friend) in 1900.  He wrote reviews of Yiddish theater and other pieces for the London Yiddish press.  In 1912 he was one of the initiators, directors, and (together with Morris Mayer) the literary councilor to the Yiddish theater in London.  He was also a member of the London publishing committee for the Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater).  In book form: Avrom goldfaden, mayne memuarn un zayne briv (Avrom Goldfaden, my memoirs, and his letters) (London, 1908), 30 pp.—in 1926 this pamphlet was republished in London’s daily newspaper, Di post (The mail).

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2; Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 3 (New York, 1959).

Leyb Vaserman