YOSL KOTLER

YOSL KOTLER (October 1896-June 11, 1935)

            He was born in Troyanets, Volhynia.  He studied in religious elementary school.  He was orphaned in his youth, and at age eleven he became a server in a tavern.  He mastered sign painting and in 1911 departed for the United States.  He pursued his study of painting, and in 1925 he created with the artists Zuni Maud and Jack Tworkov a Yiddish marionette theater called “Modicut,” which proved successful in the United States and Europe, but didn’t last long because of the great expenses involved.  Under the influence of Moyshe Nadir, in 1922 he began writing poetry, humorous sketches, stories, and short plays in: Avrom Reyzen’s Nay-yidish (New Yiddish), Oyfgang (Arise), Otem (Breath), Feder (Pen), Kundes (Prankster), Kinder-land (Children’s land), Kinder-zhurnal (Children’s magazine), Funk (Spark), Yungvarg (Youth), Nay-lebn (New life), Hamer (Hammer), and many more in Frayhayt (Freedom), in which for a time he had charge of a daily column.  His work also appeared in: D. Kurland and S. Rokhkind, eds., Di haynttsaytike proletarishe yidishe dikhtung in amerike (Contemporary proletarian Jewish poetry in America) (Minsk, 1932); Af naye vegn (On new roads); and Nakhmen Mayzil, ed., Amerike in yidishn vort (America in the Yiddish word) (New York, 1955).  Of his short plays that were published in journals: Di sokhrim fun fefer (Merchants of pepper); Der kindermark (The children’s market); and Mayn filozofisher vesher (My philosophical laundry); among others.  In book form: Muntergang (Success) (New York, 1934), 190 pp.  “Yosl Kotler worked in three realms,” wrote M. Olgin, “which merged into one: writer of humor, cartoonist, and marionette operator.”  He died in Memphis.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 6 (Mexico City, 1969); A. Pomerants, Proletpen (Proletarian pen) (Kiev, 1935), p. 235; M. Olgin, Kultur un folk (Culture and people) (New York, 1949), pp. 299-303; Moyshe kats bukh (Volume for Moyshe Katz) (New York, 1963), pp. 235-38.

Berl Cohen