YANKEV TSINEMAN (JAKUB ZINEMAN)

YANKEV TSINEMAN (JAKUB ZINEMAN) (April 25, 1893-May 26, 1966)

            He was born in Reyshe (Rzeszów), eastern Galicia.  His father was a Zionist and a follower of the Jewish Enlightenment.  Yankev Tsineman studied in a Polish public school and high school in Pshemishl (Przemyśl).  During WWI, he was a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army.  He later studied history and geography at the Universities of Lemberg and Vienna.  Together with Rifoel Mahler and Yekhiel Halpern, he administered the academic association of Poale-Tsiyon (Labor Zionism) in Vienna and contributed there to the Zionist Morgenpost (Morning mail) in German.  Over the years 1923-1926, he worked as a teacher of history in a high school in Bialystok and other cities.  He spent the years 1927-1939 in Warsaw, where he was active in the Zionist central committee, was one of the elected heads of the Warsaw Jewish community council, and contributed to the Yiddish, Hebrew, and Polish Jewish press.  He was editor of Y. Grinboym’s weekly Tsienistishe bleter (Zionist pages), of the Polish-language Zionist journal Naród (People), and of other publications in Polish.  During the years of WWII, he was deported to a Siberian camp and worked in the city of Zhambul in Soviet Central Asia.  From 1947 he was living in France, where he was a cofounder and the first chairman of the “Jewish writers and journalists’ association” in Paris.  He contributed work to: Unzer velt (Our world) in Munich, Germany; Unzer kiem (Our existence) in Paris; Ilustrirte literarishe bleter (Illustrated literary leaves) in Buenos Aires; and Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal) in New York.  In book form: Socjalizm i Żydzi (Socialism and the Jews) (Warsaw, 1928); Tsi shteyt di hayntike velt far a tsuzamenbrukh (Is the world today on the eve of collapse?), Romanized text (Warsaw: Unzer lebn, 1932), 138 pp.; Di geshikhte fun tsienizm (The history of Zionism), two volumes—(1) from early times to the death of Theodor Herzl; and (2) from Herzl’s death until the establishment of the state of Israel—(Paris, 1947-1949), 598 pp. and 640 pp. (with photographs); Der fergesene novi, maks nordoys lebns-geshikhte, byografishe shilderung (The forgotten prophet, Max Nordau’s life story, biographical depiction) (Paris-New York, 1951), 302 pp.; In gerangl, eseyen, artiklen, retsenzyes (In the fight, essays, articles, reviews) (Paris, 1952), 203 pp.; In rabonishn shoṭn, byografisher roman vegn dem lebn fun karl marḳs un zayn yidishn dor (In the shadow of rabbis, biographical novel of the life of Karl Marx and his Jewish generation) (Paris, 1954), 221 pp.; Teodor (benyomin zeev) hertsl, byografishe shilderung fun zayn lebn un tetikeyt (Theodor [Benjamin Zev] Herzl, biographical depiction of his life and activity) (Paris, 1956), 509 pp., which won an award from the World Jewish Congress in Paris in 1958; Emil zola, dos lebn fun a shrayber un kemfer, byografishe dertseylung (Émile Zola, the life of a writer and fighter, biographical story) (Tel Aviv: Menorah, 1962), 579 pp., which received an award from the Newmann Fund of the Jewish Cultural Union in Geneva).  His work, Letste shriftn (Last writings) (Paris: Unzer kiem, 1967), 169 pp., including an autobiography, appeared posthumously.  He also had prepared for the published a biographical novel of the Anglo-Jewish statesman Benjamin Disraeli; it was published as: Bendzhamin dizraeli, lord bikonsfild, byografishe shilderung fun zayn lebn un tetikayt (Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, biographical depiction of his life and activities) (Tel Aviv, 1971), 520 pp.  From 1965 he was living in Israel, and he died in Paris.

Sources: M. Dvorzhetski, in Afrikaner yidishe tsaytung (Johannesburg) (December 9, 1949); M. Ginzburg, in Idishe tsaytung (Buenos Aires) (March 26, 1950); Ginzburg, in Keneder odler (April 2, 1951); Y. Leshtshinski, in Forverts (New York) (September 9, 1950; April 8, 1951; May 2, 1954; April 14, 1957); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (February 29, 1952; March 26, 1954); Glatshteyn, In tokh genumen (In essence), vol. 2 (Buenos Aires, 1960), pp. 49-74; Elye (Elias) Shulman, in Unzer shtime (Paris) (September 22, 1956); P. Shteynvaks, Siluetn fun a dor (Silhouettes of a generation) (Buenos Aires, 1958); Y. Botoshanski, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (October 19, 1962; October 21, 1962); B. Frenkel, in Unzer shtime (November 11, 1962; June 3-5, 1967); Y. Milner, in Arbeter vort (Paris) (January 11, 1963); F. Shrager, in Unzer kiem (Paris) (October 1963); L. Leneman, in Forverts (May 31, 1966); Yefim Yeshurin, 100 yor moderne yidishe literatur, biblyografisher tsushteyer (100 years of modern Yiddish literature, bibliographical contribution) (New York, 1966); Tsineman, Letste shriftn (Paris, 1967).

Benyomen Elis