Thursday 19 March 2015

LEVI BERMAN

LEVI BERMAN (b. April 2, 1895)
He was born in the small settlement in Lithuania known as Pikeln (Pikeliai), into a well-to-do family.  He studied in religious elementary school and in a public school.  From 1911 he was living in Vilna, and in 1915 he left for the United States.  He began writing at age ten and sent poems to Bal-Makhshoves who in an article—in Der fraynd (The friend) in 1910—commended the poet.  However, Bal-Makhshoves radically altered the meaning of Berman’s poem Di ershte megile fun der goyle (The first scroll of the Diaspora) (Vilna, 1913), 112 pp.  In the United States, Berman published in Shriftn (Writings), Tsukunft (Future), and Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor), among others.


Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Khayim Krol, Arum zikh (Around itself) (Vilna, 1930), p. 68.

1 comment:

  1. My mother was Levi's first cousin.
    We would visit him near Harold Sq. apt. I remember him as a gentle person. He also had a place in Peekskill. His brother settles in South Africa and became an MP from Bloemfontein. Just a few remembrances.

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