AYZIK KLUMAK (ISAAC KLOOMOK)

AYZIK KLUMAK (ISAAC KLOOMOK) (b. 1888)

            The author of stories and plays, he was born in Koydenev (now, Dzyarzhynsk), Byelorussia.  He came to the United States around 1902.  He worked in sweatshops and at the same time studied.  He studied dentistry and practiced in New York.  In 1907 he debuted in print in Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor) with poems and one-act plays, which he continued publishing there until 1912.  After a break of six years, he began writing stories.  For a number of years in succession, he was art reviewer for Frayhayt (Freedom).  He also published articles on art in: Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture) in 1943, Naylebn (New life) in 1944, and Di goldene keyt (The golden chain) in 1950.  Of his eleven one-act plays, ten were published in Fraye arbeter shtime—such as: “Zey dernentern zikh” (They’re approaching) on December 28, 1907; “Tsvey mames” (Two mothers) on January 11 and 18, 1908; “In eyn obend” (In one evening) on January 25, 1908—and one in Forverts (Forward): “A poor folk” (A poor people) on December 31, 1922.  In book form: Dertseylungen (Stories) (New York, 1921), 322 pp.; Marc Chagall, His Life and Work (New York, 1951), 125 pp.  As Shmuel Niger put it: “Not original in his style…nor careful in his language,…Klumak still excels as a storyteller and psychologist of love in his highly diverse design.”

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 6 (Mexico City, 1969); Yoyel Entin, in Tsukunft (New York) 5 (1924); Yoysef Khaykin, Yidishe bleter in amerike, a tsushteyer tsu der 75-yoriker geshikhte fun der yidisher prese in di fareynikte shtatn un kanade (Yiddish letters in America, a contribution to the seventy-five year history of the Yiddish press in the United States and Canada) (New York, 1946), p. 339; Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Berl Cohen