YANKEV GAVINOSER

YANKEV GAVINOSER (b. September 21, 1894)

            He was born in Razhinilov [?], Podolia region, Ukraine, into a merchant family, from which he received a Jewish education.  As a youth he emigrated with his parents to Argentina and settled in the YIKO (Jewish Cultural Organization) colony of Rivera.  He worked for several years as a farmer, later graduating from middle school; he then studied to be and became a dentist, and was an active community and cultural leader in Argentina.

            He began writing poetry in 1909, and his first publication appeared in 1912.  He contributed poems, stories, travel narratives, and feature essays to: Tog (Day), Di prese (The press), Di gezelshaft (The community), Dos idishe folksblat (The Jewish people’s newspaper), Di pen (The pen), Dorem amerike (South America), Dos riverer vokhnblat (The Rivera weekly newspaper), Far kleyn un groys (For little and big), Morgn frayhayt (Morning freedom) in New York, and others.  He also published in the socialist and syndicalist Spanish press in Argentina.  His books include: Horizontn (Horizons), sentimental prose on themes of love and nostalgia (Buenos Aires, 1927), 110 pp.  He translated a number of items from Russian and Spanish—among them, the drama Di zun fun der menshheyt (The sun of humanity [original: El Sol de la Humanidad]) by José Fola Igúrbide.  He was living in Buenos Aires.

Sources: Zalmen reyzen arkhiv (The Zalmen Reyzen archive) (YIVO, New York); Bibyoligrafishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic annuals from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928); Sh. Rozhanski, Dos yidishe gedrukte vort in argentina (The published Yiddish word in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1941), p. 185; Volf Bresler, Antologye fun der yidisher literatur in argentine (Anthology of Jewish literature in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1944), p. 921.