YANKEV KIRSHENBOYM

YANKEV KIRSHENBOYM (February 28, 1885-October 25, 1946)

            A journalist and theater reviewer, he was born in Doline (Dolina), Galicia.  He studied in religious elementary school and in a public school.  In 1897 he came to the United States.  He worked in the business of wig-making.  He was active in the unions, in the socialist movement, and in general Jewish affairs.  He was also connected to the Yiddish theater.  In 1905 he began writing correspondence pieces for American and Canadian newspapers.  He wrote humorous sketches, stories about Jewish life in Galicia, and articles on general Jewish topics and especially on Yiddish theater.  He contributed work to: Kibitser (Kibitzer), Groyser kundes (Great prankster), edited “Der shtot-sheygets” (The city brat) within Y. Fefer’s Idishes vokhenblat (Jewish daily newspaper), Idishe velt (Jewish world) in Cleveland, Der amerikaner (The American), Dos idishe folk (The Jewish people), Shikago (Chicago), Der idisher almanakh (The Jewish almanac), Nyu-yorker vokhnblat (New York weekly newspaper), and Idishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) in Buenos Aires.  From 1915 he was an internal contributor to Morgn zhurnal (Morning journal) in New York, as reporter-interviewer and theater critic.  In book form: Amerike, dos land fun vunder, reportazhn (America, the land of wonder, reportage pieces) (Warsaw: Bzhoza, 1939), 332 pp.  As Zalmen Zilbertsvayg wrote: “His innumerable overviews, reviews, conversations, and characterizations of Yiddish theatrical showmen were an important component of Yiddish theatrical literature.”  He died in New York.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 3 (New York, 1959); Sholem Perlmuter, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (November 8, 1944); D. Ignatov, in Tsukunft (New York) (December 1944); Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York); Pinkes galitsye (Records of Galicia) (Buenos Aires, 1925), p. 247.

Berl Cohen