KALMEN TSUNZER (CHARLES ZUNSER)

KALMEN TSUNZER (CHARLES ZUNSER) (June 7, 1861-May 17, 1976)

            He was born in Minsk, Byelorussia, the son of Elyokem Tsunzer.  In 1890 he came with his family to the United States.  He studied there in public schools.  He went on to study law and in 1905 graduated as a lawyer from New York University.  He helped found an agency for problems of abandoned wives in the old country and the National Desertion Bureau for tracking down men who had disappeared.  He was chairman of the committee for the establishment of the social family courts, and in 1952 he helped found a children’s court in the state of Israel.  He wrote poetry and stories for various Yiddish newspapers and journals, such as: Avrom Reyzen’s Dos naye land (The new country), Idishe kultur (Jewish culture) (1940), and Der groyser kundes (The great prankster) in New York, and he also drew caricatures.  His humorous poetry appeared in Yankev Marinov’s anthology, Humor un satire (Humor and satire), vol. 1, “poetry” (New York, 1912).  He died in New York.

Source: Zalmen Reyzen, in Yivo-bleter (Vilna) 5.1 (1933), pp. 137-52.

Yankev Kahan