LEYZER ROZENBERG

LEYZER ROZENBERG (b. August 23, 1892)

            Born in Bodzhentin (Bodzentyn), Poland, he received a traditional education.  In 1931 he made his way to Toronto.  He was a leader in the national radical school and general secretary of relief work in the province of Ontario during WWI.  In 1915 he became an internal contributor to Toronto’s Idisher zhurnal (Jewish journal); in it he placed stories, sketches, poems, feature pieces, one-act plays, and translations—among others, Maurice Maeterlinck’s Lebens-soydes (Secrets of life) in July 1918.  He also wrote for: Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal; Dos yidishe vort (The Jewish world) in Winnipeg; the weekly newspaper of humor Der mazik (The mischievous child) in Toronto (1920-1921); and Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter) in New York; among others.  In the words of Zalmen Reyzen: “One of the first Yiddish books in Canada, but almost worthless as literature, as is also worthless Rozenberg’s cycle of poems in the collection Bleter fun mayn album (Pages from my album).”  He also edited a collection entitled Kanader yugend (Canada’s youth) (Toronto, 1920).  Among his pen names: Leyzerke, Leyzer Mazek, and Leyzer Koval.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Kh. M. Kaizerman-Vital, Yidishe dikhter in kanade (Yiddish poets in Canada) (Montreal, 1934), p. 69.

Berl Cohen