YANKEV (JACOB) FISHMAN

YANKEV (JACOB) FISHMAN (April 10, 1878-December 20, 1946)

            He was born in Radziłów, Lomzhe district, Poland.  He studied in religious elementary school and yeshiva.  In 1890 he came to the United States.  From the years of his youth, he was active in Jewish community, political, and cultural life in America.  For many years he was a member of the central committee of the Zionist Organization in America and a member of the Zionist Action Committee.  He was cofounder and for many years vice-chairman of the Y. L. Perets writers’ association.  He was also active in other institutions.  He was a delegate to Zionist congresses.  In 1927 he took part in the conference for Jewish national rights in Zurich, Switzerland.  Although he was a leading Zionist, he left the conference in protest against those who ignored the Yiddish language and the Yiddish school, which he considered the sole means of warding off assimilation.  He began writing with reportage pieces in Yidishes tageblat (Jewish daily newspaper) in New York, later as an editorial board member, and from 1901 until 1914 editor of the news division (and later news editor) for Varhayt (Truth), 1914-1916.  From late 1916 he was managing editor of Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal) in New York.  From 1936, after the death of P. Vyernik, he became editor-in-chief of this newspaper.  He introduced the daily heading “Fun tog tsu tog” (From day to day) which was concerned with Jewish and general issues.  He was the first to publish Herzl’s diary and the memoirs of Rabbi Mazeh in Yiddish.  He also contributed to Di idishe velt (The Jewish world) in Philadelphia, as well as in the Yiddish press in Poland.  In book form he published: Der emes vegn di ekonomishe krizisn un vi azoy zikh tsu bafrayen fun zey (The truth about the economic crises and how to be freed from them) (New York, 1934), 95 pp.  He was one of the founders of the world association of Jewish journalists, a leading member of the American Zionist Organization, and among the central figures of American Jewish journalists.  In December 1946 he was among the speakers at the Zionist congress in Basel, and after hearing reports on the Jewish destruction in Poland, he had a heart attack and died on the spot.  He was buried in the land of Israel.

            “Although he was a leading Zionist,” wrote Moyshe Shtarkman, “on Jewish problems, just as on other issues of the day, Fishman comments as an independent journalist, acutely and to the point, in his daily column ‘Fun tog tsu tog,’ published daily on page one.”

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Froym Oyerbakh, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (May 30, 1931); Dr. Sh. Bernshteyn, in Tog (New York) (January 14, 1932); Dr. Sh. Margoshes, in Tog (June 4, 1932); Sh. Petrushka, in Tog (October 8, 1932); B. Ts. Goldberg, in Tog (May 9, 1933); Y. Khaykin, Yidishe bleter in amerike, a tsushteyer tsu der 75-yoriker geshikhte fun der yidisher prese in di fareynikte shtatn un kanade (Yiddish letters in America, a contribution to the seventy-five year history of the Yiddish press in the United States and Canada) (New York, 1946), see index; Dr. A. Mukdoni, In varshe un in lodzh (In Warsaw and in Lodz) (Buenos Aires, 1955), p. 44; Talush, Yidishe shrayber (Yiddish writers) (New York, 1955), pp. 121-22; M. Shushani, in Hadoar (New York) (Nisan 2 [= April 3], 1946); Moyshe Shtarkman, in Hadoar (Sivan 4 [= May 23], 1947); Dovid Shub, in Forverts (New York) (March 20, 1966).

Khayim Leyb Fuks