YOYEL GAK

YOYEL GAK (August 13, 1913-July 24, 1979)

            He was born in Rovno, Ukraine.  He studied in religious primary school, later in a Tarbut high school, and in 1930 he was studying chemistry in university in Prague.  In 1932 he published for the first time an article in Voliner shtime (Voice of Wolhynia).  That same year he returned to Rovno.  He published reportage pieces and stories in the local press.  In 1933 he emigrated to Montevideo, Uruguay.  There he contributed to Folksblat (People’s newspaper), Ilustrirte literarishe bleter (Illustrated literary leaves), and Di idishe tsaytung (The Jewish newspaper) in Buenos Aires.  Over the years 1939-1946, he studied at the university in Montevideo, from which he received a civil engineer’s diploma.  In 1951 he became a regular contributor to Folksblat, publishing articles on pedagogy and cultural matters, as well as literary critical treatises.  He wrote a work called “Oytoportret” (Self-portrait) for Avrom Sutskever’s Lider-zamlung (Poetry anthology) (Buenos Aires, 1953).  He wrote from time to time for Di prese (The press) in Buenos Aires.  He edited various publications of Hanoar hatsiyoni (The Zionist youth) in Montevideo.  He was a member, 1934-1939, of the local Zionist federation and a co-founder and secretary of the Jewish writers’ and journalists’ association in Montevideo.  He was living in Montevideo until his death.

Sources: D. Arzuk, in Folksblat (February 1954); Y. Botoshanski, in Di prese (October 2, 1954); Y. Varshavski, in Forverts (New York) (February 23, 1958).