MENKE KATZ

MENKE KATZ (April 11, 1906-April 24, 1991)

            He was a Yiddish and English poet, born in Sventsyan (Švenčionys), Lithuania.  He came from a family of lumberjacks and millers.  He spent a portion of his childhood in neighboring Mikhalishek (Mikališkis).  He studied in religious elementary school and a municipal public school.  In 1920 he emigrated with his parents to Passaic, New Jersey.  He studied in Brooklyn College, Columbia University, and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.  He worked as a watchmaker, and from the early 1930s for forty years he was a teacher in Jewish day schools.  He lived for three years (1954-1956, 1959-1960) in Tsfat (Safed).  From 1978 he was living in a wooden home in Spring Glen, New York.  For many years he was among the “leftists,” before breaking with them over the murder of the Soviet Yiddish writers.  He debuted in print in 1925 with a poem in Spartak (Spartacus); he went on to publish in: Signal (Signal), Hamer (Hammer), Frayhayt (Freedom), Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture), and elsewhere.  In later years he wrote for: Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor), Undzer eygn vort (Our own word), Undzer eygn vinkl (Our own corner), Afn shvel (At the threshold), and Di goldene keyt (The golden chain), among others.  With V. Abramski and Y. Stodolski, he published the journal Mir (We) in New York (1944).  From the mid-1950s, he was writing more in English.  From 1962 he edited the poetry magazine Bitterroot.  His work appeared in: Moyshe Shtarkman, Hamshekh-antologye (Hamshekh anthology) (New York, 1945); Nakhmen Mayzil, Amerike in yidishn vort (America in the Yiddish word) (New York, 1955); and M. Yofe, Erets-yisroel in der yidisher literatur (Israel in Yiddish literature) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1961).  His writings included: Dray shvester (Three sisters) (Milwaukee, 1932), 60 pp.; Der mentsh in togn (Dawning man) (New York: Signal, 1935), 143 pp.; Brenendik shtetn (Burning town) (New York: Signal, 1938), 2 vols.; S’hot dos vort mayn bobe moyne (Grandmother Moyne takes the floor) (New York, 1939), 64 pp.; Tsu dertseyln in freydn (To tell it in happiness) (New York, 1941), 128 pp.; Der posheter kholem (The simple dream) (New York, 1947), 176 pp.; Inmitn tog (Midday) (New York, 1954), 112 pp.; Tsfas (Tsfat [Safed]) (Tel Aviv, 1979), 96 pp.  He also published a number of volumes of poetry in English, such as: Land of Manna (Chicago, 1965), 96 pp.; and Burning Village (New York, 1972), 135 pp.  Other books in English include: Rockrose (New York: Smith-Horizon Press, 1970), 94 pp., Hebrew translation by David Vardi, Peraḥ sela (Rock flower) (Tel Aviv, 1973), 46 pp.; Forever and Ever and a Wednesday (New York, 1980), short stories, 79 pp.; Two Friends (New York, 1981), 132 pp., with Harry Smith; A Chair for Elijah (New York, 1985), 104 pp.  A collection of poetry by fifty Yiddish poets, entitled Modern Yiddish Poetry, edited by Katz, was set to be published in 1986 in Madras (India).  Many of Katz’s poems were translated into other languages.  “Menke Katz,” wrote Shmuel Niger, “tries to translate revolution into the language of pure lyricism.”  Katz’s themes—in both Yiddish and English—are a synthesis of the secluded and dreamy Mikališkis with the noisy life of the international city of New York.  After his visits to Tsfat, his love for Israel acquired a third dimension in Katz’s poetry.  He also wrote under the pen names: K. Meynke and Meynke Badane.  He died in Spring Glen, New York.

Sources: Shmuel Niger, in Tog (New York) (December 8, 1930); A. Tabatshnik, in Brikn (New York) (1932); Meylekh Ravitsh, in Vokhnshrift far literatur (Warsaw) (March 31, 1933); Avrom Reyzen, in Di feder (New York) (1936); R. Ayzland, in Tog (June 26, 1938); A. Mukdoni, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (February 11, 1938); B. Ts. Goldberg, in Tog (August 27, 1939); Y. L. Zhitnitski, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (January 17, 1940); M. Kats, in Morgn frayhayt (New York) (March 23, 1947); M. Olgin, Kultur un folk, ophandlungen un eseyen vegn kultur and shrayber (Culture and people, treatises and essays about culture and writers) (New York, 1949), pp. 281-85; H. Leivick, in Tog (November 14, 1953); Y. Bashevis, in Forverts (New York) (December 9, 1956); M. Yungman, in Di goldene keyt (Tel Aviv) 101 (1980).

Dovid Katz

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 551-52.]