BORVIN (BOREKH, BORIS BORVINE) FRENKEL

BORVIN (BOREKH, BORIS BORVINE) FRENKEL (1895-April 30, 1984)

            He was born in Sluptse (Słupca), Kalisz district, Poland.  He studied in religious elementary school, at a Kalisz high school, and in the Warsaw and Lemberg polytechnics.  Until 1921 he was active in the Polish Communist movement and spent time in jails.  He later studied painting at the Berlin and Brussels art academies, while at the same time remaining active in Jewish cultural life.  From 1930 he was living in Paris.  He continued his studies to be a painter.  He was founder, director, and decorator of the Parisian Jewish Workers’ Theater (PIAT).  He published theater criticism and surveys of literature and art in: Di naye prese (The new press), Pariz (Paris), Parizer bleter (Parisian sheets), and elsewhere.  From 1945 he was an internal contributor to Undzer shtime (Our voice) in Paris, in which he published hundreds of pieces on Yiddish and general theater, as well as literary essays which introduced readers to the world of aesthetics, skill with language, and culture generally.  He contributed to: Lebns-fragn (Life issues) in Tel Aviv; Undzer gedank (Our idea) in Buenos Aires; and Undzer gedank in Melbourne; among others.  He visited South Africa, the state of Israel, and Western European countries, and there he displayed his paintings which thus gained for him recognition.  In book form: In shotn fun metshetn, rayze-ayndrukn (In the shadow of mosques, travel impressions), about Jewish and general Morocco (Paris, 1956), 150 pp.; Mit yidishe kinstler, shmuesn un bamerkungen (With Jewish artists, chats and remarks) (Paris, 1963), 126 pp.  He also published under such pen names as: A. Feygin, A Parizer, and Borvin.  He died in Paris.

            “In depicting Jewish life in Morocco,” wrote Avrom Shulman, “the following had to be kept under control: the sensible eye and ear for hues and colors of a distinctive way of life; the polemical tone of a Yiddish journalist; the refined evaluator of artistic worth; and, above all, the painter.  The final element in a positive sense synthesizes the first three.  The writer demonstrates support for the profound secretiveness and intriguing Oriental quality in the end.  Morocco and Jewish Morocco as well—although they are often described as very close and although they are even from time to time conveyed in the language of dates and numbers—have not lost their Eastern discreetness.”

Sources: Yankev Glatshteyn, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (May 17, 1963); Avrom Shulman, in Undzer shtime (Paris) (June 15-16, 1963); Y. Yanasovitsh, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (January 25, 1964); Y. Emyot, in Tsukunft (New York) (November 1964); Y. Luden, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (January 2, 1966); Luden, in Undzer shtime (January 24, 1966).

Avrom Shulman