FROYM SHVARTSMAN

FROYM SHVARTSMAN (b. 1902)

            He was the author of stories, born in Vinitse (Vinnytsa), Ukraine.  He signed his given name Froyke.  In 1921 he moved to the United States.  He engaged in a variety of trades, later working as a teacher in schools of the International Labor Order.  He graduated from an agricultural college.  He was close to leftists.  He was a member of the writers’ group “Union Square” and a member of “Proletpen” (Proletarian pen).  He published numerous stories in Morgn frayhayt (Morning freedom), Hamer (Hammer), and other leftist periodicals.  He also wrote on cultural and literary matters.  In book form: Flaks, drame in fir aktn (Flax, a drama in four acts) (New York, 1927), 89 pp.  His work also appeared in: In shotn fun tlies, almanakh fun der yidisher proletarisher literatur in di kapitalistishe lender (In the shadow of the gallows, an almanac of Yiddish proletarian literature in the capitalist countries) (Kharkov-Kiev, 1932); and Osher shvartsman, zamlung gevidmet dem tsvantsik yortog fun zayn heldishn toyt (Osher Shvartsman, collection dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of his heroic death) (Moscow: Emes, 1940).

Sources: Aleksander Pomerants, in Proletpen (Kiev) (1935), p. 244; Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1962), see index.

Berl Cohen