YOYSEF-ZELIG GLIK (JOSEPH S. GLICK)

YOYSEF-ZELIG GLIK (JOSEPH S. GLICK) (February 5, 1852-September 7, 1922)

            He was born in the village of Patsinel (Pociūnėliai), Kovno region.  He studied with the village school teachers, with the rabbi from the neighboring town Grinkishok (Grinkiškis), in the Kaidaner Yeshiva, and with R. Reuven-Yoysef Gordon in Shavel (Šiauliai).  For a short period of time, he worked as a ritual slaughterer, attempted to do business, was a Hebrew teacher in Bohuslav, Kiev region, later ran a lending library, and later still traded in jewels and prospering.  He left Russia because of pogroms, in 1887 arriving in the United States.  He lived for a short time in New York, before settling in Pittsburgh.  He made a living as a peddler and a teacher as well.  In 1889 he began publishing a weekly newspaper, Der folksfraynd (The friend of the people).  With help from a son, he published the newspaper himself in a small format.  On a foot press, he stitched them together with needle and thread and distributed them.  A year later the newspaper was published in an enlarged format and with a Hebrew section.  Over the years 1903-1911, he published the weekly newspaper Di yidishe post (The Jewish post) in Pittburgh.  He was the founder of the Zionist association “Dorshe tsiyon” (Preachers of Zion) in Pittsburgh, and he was active in the Zionist movement as a proselytizer.  He was the author of the pamphlets: Bitset yisrael mimitsrayim (When Israel came forth out of Egypt) (Pittsburgh), 10 pp.; Maḥasit hashekel (The half-shekel), 28 pp.; Yazag’s lider un epigramen (Yazag’s [=Yoysef-Zelig Glik’s] poems and epigrams) (1907), 100 pp.; Yazag’s felyetonin, kokhleflekh un vitsige artiklen (Yazag’s feature pieces, dippers, and important articles) (1907), 100 pp.; Yazag’s mish-mash (Yazag’s hodge-podge) (Pittsburgh, 1908), 100 pp.; Yazag’s shriftn (Yazag’s writings) (Pittsburgh, 1909), 100 pp.; Yazag’s vitsige literatur (Yazag’s important literature) (Pittsburgh, 1916), 100 pp.; Der idisher redner (The Yiddish speaker) (Pittsburgh, 1908), 82 pp.  In these pamphlets, the author assembled his Zionist speeches, articles, features essays, tracts on the sages, epigrams, and humorous sketches, written in an Enlightened folkish Yiddish.  His merit on behalf of Yiddish culture consisted, though, largely in the fact that he was a pioneer in the Yiddish press in America.  Glik died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; M. Ḥizkuni (Shtarkman), “Ivrim kaḥalutse yidish beamerika” (Jews as pioneers of Yiddish in America), Metsuda 7 (1953).

Zaynvl Diamant

HIRSH GLIK (HIRSCH GLICK)

HIRSH GLIK (HIRSCH GLICK) (April 24, 1922-1944)

            He was born in Vilna, by the city gates in the district of Shnipeshok (Šnipiškis).  His father Velvl dealt in old iron, rags, and used bottles.  The family, four sons and a daughter, lived in great poverty.  Their home, though, was a warm, Jewish one—a synthesis of Jewish tradition, piety, and worldliness.  He studied at the Tarbut school “Beit Yehuda” and was an extremely capable student.  In 1938 he was forced to leave school to help his family earn a living.  He worked with a bookbinder and in a paper mill.  From his early youth, he was a member of the Young Pioneers.  In 1935 he began writing poetry in Hebrew.  Later, under the influence of the poets of the Yung-vilne (Young Vilna) group, he turned to writing in Yiddish.  He gathered around him a group of young writers, little more than children, neighbors in the Shnipeshok area, who each read their creations before the others aloud.  Later they assembled around their much more experienced neighbor, Leyzer Volf, one of the founders of Young Vilna.  With his help, in 1939 over a period of four consecutive months they published the journal Yungvald (Young forest).  This was also the name of the new, youthful literary group which would later be considered the offspring of Young Vilna.  Glik was the most important and most promising poet in the Yungvald group.  He published his poetry in Yungvald and later, in 1940, when the Bolsheviks occupied Vilna, in Vilner emes (Vilna truth) and in Di naye bleter (The new pages) in Kovno.  When Vilna was taken by the Nazis in 1941, he and his father were taken to work in the peat bogs at Biala-Waka and Rzesza, fourteen and fifteen miles from Vilna.  He worked with his father under difficult conditions and became ill.  He wrote a great deal in the camps, and his poems were a source of strength for the several hundred internees there.  He managed to have his compositions sent into a friend in the Vilna ghetto.  The literary association convinced the ghetto management committee to offer him help.  In the Vilna ghetto, his poems had such success that on two occasions they were awarded prizes in competitions.  Among other works, he wrote in the Rzesza camp “Di balade fun broynem teater” (The ballad of the brown theater), published later in Di goldene keyt (The golden chain) 4 (1949) in Tel Aviv and “Tifus-balade” (Typhus ballad); and the songs: “Dos zangl” (The ear of corn), “Shtil, di nakht iz oysgeshternt” (Quite, the night is star-studded), “Vayse toybn” (White doves), and “Dos torflid” (Song of the peat) which was later published in Di goldene keyt 15 (1953).  In May 1943 when the peat camp in Rzesza was liquidated, because of links made with the partisans, Glik was sent to the Vilna ghetto.  From May until September of the following year, he continued to write poems.

            At roughly this time, Glik also wrote his song “Zog nit keyn mol, az du geyst dem letstn veg” (Never say that this is the final road for you).  On January 4, 1943, on the anniversary of the founding of the F. P. O. (Fareynikte partizaner organizatsye, United Partisan Organization), partisan headquarters decided to make this poem the anthem of their organization.  It was fated to become the symbol of the heroic uprisings in the forests, ghettos, and camps.  After the great Holocaust of European Jewry, this song reached all Jewish communities across borders and oceans.  It was sung at all great congresses and conferences.  To this day it is sung at all memorial services on behalf of the millions of victims.  It was translated into Hebrew by the poet Avraham Shlonsky.  There are six translations into English by: Arn Kremer, Marie Syrkin, Nathan Ausubel, Ruth Rubin, Dr. A. A. Roback, and Molly Picon.  There are three Polish translations, and others into Romanian, Dutch, Spanish, Bulgarian, and other languages.  From this partisans’ anthem a color film with the Jewish artist Khayele Goldshteyn in the main role was also made by the Dutch film society Niderland Film.  Hirsh Glik’s figure served as an inspiration for the work of such poets as: Perets Markish, Avrom Sutskever, Schmerke Kaczerginski, and others.  After the Holocaust, Glik’s poems and songs were compiled and published in various newspapers and journals, and they were included in poetry anthologies from the ghettos and camps.  They were published in book form in Lider un poemes (Songs and poems) (New York: Ikuf, 1953), 62 pp., with an introduction by Nokhum Mayzil.

            During the liquidation of the Vilna ghetto (October 1943), Glik tried to break through the Nazi encirclement, with the aim of running to reach the partisans in the woods.  He fell into the hands of the Gestapo, however, and he was dispatched to the concentration camp at Goldfields (Kohtla) in Estonia.  In the summer of 1944, when the Red Army began its assault on the Baltic states, Glik escaped, with some partisans, from the camp; he died in the fight against the Germans in the forests around Goldfields.

Sources: Sh. Katsherginski (Schmerke Kaczerginski), Ikh bin geven a partisan (I was a partisan) (Buenos Aires, 1947), pp. 104-7; Katsherginski, Dos gezang fun vilner geto (The song of the Vilna ghetto) (Paris, 1947), pp. 47, 47, 52; Katsherginski, Khurbn vilne (The Holocaust in Vilna) (New York, 1947), pp. 185-86; Katsherginski, Lider fun di getos un lagern (Poems from the ghettos and camps) (New York, 1948), pp. 248, 249, 348, 349; Dr. M. Dvorzhetski (Mark Dvorzetsky), Yerusholayim delite in kamf un umkum (The Jerusalem of Lithuania in struggle and death) (Paris, 1948), see index; N. Mayzil, Hirsh glik un zayn lid “zog nisht keyn mol” (Hirsh Glik and his song, “Zog nisht keyn mol”) (New York, 1949), 63 pp.; Mayzil, introduction to Lider un poemes (New York, 1953); A. Sutskever, in Di goldene keyt (Tel Aviv) 4 (1949); N. Blumental, in Yidishe shriftn (Warsaw) 4 (1949); M. Ravitsh, in Yorbukh (Buenos Aires, 1949); Sh. Lastik, Mitn ponem tsum morgn (Facing morning) (Warsaw, 1952), pp. 157-58; B. Mark, Umgekumene shrayber fun di getos un lagern (Murdered writers from the ghettos and camps) (Warsaw, 1954), pp. 215-16; M. Gurin, in Yidishe kultur (New York) (February 1954); Sefer milḥamot hagetaot (The fighting ghettos) (Tel Aviv, 1954), p. 717; Shmerke katsherginski ondenk-bukh (Shmerke Katsherginski memory book) (Buenos Aires, 1955), pp. 221-23, 308; N. Mayzil, Noente un eygene (Close by and one’s own) (New York, 1957).

Zaynvl Diamant

A. M. GLIK

A. M. GLIK

            He came from Lithuania and was the author of a number of storybooks which were reprinted in numerous editions, such as: Di suke in vald (The sukkah in the woods) (Warsaw, 1912), 32 pp.; and R’ azriel mit dem ber (Rabbi Azriel and the bear) (Warsaw, 1912), 32 pp.

Source: Noyekh Prilucki, Mame loshn (Mother tongue) (Warsaw, 1924).

HENEKH GLITSENSHTEYN

HENEKH GLITSENSHTEYN (May 24, 1870-December 30, 1942)

            He was born in Turek, near Lodz, Poland, into a bourgeois Hassidic family.  His father was an engraver of gravestones.  Until age seventeen he studied in an Orthodox conclave and in yeshivas.  He later moved to Germany and graduated there from an art academy.  He was one of the most important Jewish painters and sculptures with worldwide renown.  From 1917 he published poetry and treatises on art in various languages, including Yiddish and Hebrew in such serials as Idishe zamlbikher (Jewish anthologies) (Warsaw, 1917), Di tsayt (The times) in London, Hatsfira (The siren) in Warsaw, and Hadoar (The mail) in New York, among others.  In these he expressed his experiences and memories.  He died in New York.

Sources: A. Ribolov, in Hadoar (New York) (January 8, 1943); Sh. Tenenboym, in Forverts (New York) (January 6, 1943); Fraye arbeter shtime (New York) (March 12, 1943); Keneder odler (Montreal) (January 7, 1954); A. Y. Bzizinski, Yehudim mefursamim (Famous Jews) (Tel Aviv, 1954), pp. 92-96; Y. Leftvitsh, in Anthology of Jewish Poetry (London, 1939), p. 460; Z. Veynper, in Yidishe kultur (New York) (April 1957).

Khayim Leyb fuks

LEYB GLITSMAN

LEYB GLITSMAN (1904-1941)

            He was born in Pumpian (Pumpenai), near Ponevezh, Lithuania, into a family of means.  He received a general and a Jewish education.  He studied in a Russian public school, later graduating from the Jewish senior high school in Vilkomir (Ukmerge).  He studied the humanistic sciences and literature at Kovno University.  From 1922 he was a Yiddish and Hebrew teacher as well as a cultural leader in Pumpian, Linkuva, and Ponevezh.  From 1938 until June 1941, he was living in Kovno, working as a teacher in a Yiddish-Hebrew middle school.  In his high school years, he began to write lyrical and nature poetry, and he first published in the anthology Vispe (Islet) 2 (Kovno, 1922).  He contributed poems to Vispe 3 (Kovno, 1923), Kveytn (Blossoms), Brikn (Bridges), Shlakhn (Combat), Idishe shtime (Jewish voice), and Folksblkat (People’s newspaper) in Kovno, Yidishe bilder (Jewish images) in Riga, and to virtually all of the other literary publication in Lithuania.  His poems of mood and sadness exerted an influence both by virtue of their immediacy and by virtue of finely polished Yiddish, and they were thus seen by the critics.  At the time of the German assault on Russia on June 22, 1941, he left Kovno with his family for Vilna.  There are two versions of the story of his death: (a) he escaped from Vilna to the former Soviet border and died from German bombing en route; and (b) he returned to Kovno, and from there made his way to relatives in Ponevezh, where he was killed during a German campaign in the first days of September 1941.

Sources: Y. Mark, in Zamlbukh, lekoved dem tsvey hundert un fuftsikstn yoyvl fun der yidisher prese 1686-1936 (Anthology in honor of the 250^th jubilee of the Yiddish press, 1686-1936) (New York, 1937); N. Y. Gotlib, in Lite (Lithuania) (New York, 1951), p. 1101; Keneder odler (Montreal) (April 10, 1944); oral information from his cousin A. Bard in New York.

MOYSHE GLINER

MOYSHE GLINER (1846-June 5, 1912)

      Nickname of Moyshe Shtam, he was born in Premishlyan (Peremyshliany), Galicia, to poor parents.  He later settled in Glina, where he was an amateur writer, a Hebrew teacher, and was known as “Moyshele Shrayber” (Moyshele the writer).  He was also a wedding entertainer, and he wrote, aside from material for entertainment at weddings, poems to the occasion and the melodies that went with them.  A number of his poems were published, such as: “A kine af der gliner sreyfe” (A lament for the fire at Glina), “Der toes” (The error), and “Di yugend un dos alter” (The youth and the old man).

Source: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1.

MOYSHE-YUDE GLEYZER

MOYSHE-YUDE GLEYZER (b. 1903)

            He was born in Baligród, western Galicia, into a pious, Hassidic family.  He received a traditional Jewish education.  During the years of WWI, he lived in Prague and there studied secular subjects.  In 1920 he emigrated to the United States and studied in the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and the “Beis Medrash leRabbonim” where he received ordination into the rabbinate.  He served as secretary of the religious youth organization “Baḥure ḥemed” (Fine young men) and “Tseire agudat yisrael” (Agudat yisrael youth), and for a time their manager.  From 1925 he was a contributor to virtually all Orthodox periodicals in Yiddish and Hebrew in many countries, such as: Idishe togblat (Jewish daily newspaper) in Warsaw and Dos vort (The word) in Vilna.  He was regular contributor to Kol yisrael (Voice of Israel) in Jerusalem, Idishe vokhntsaytung (Jewish weekly newspaper) in London, and Ortodoksishe tribune (Orthodox tribune) and Dos idishe vort (The Jewish word) in New York, in which he published articles and treatises on historical issues and biographies of personalities in the Hassidic world, among other things.  He was living in New York.

MEYER GLIOT

MEYER GLIOT

            He was born in Vilna, where he received a Jewish and a general education.  He graduated from the Vilna Jewish teachers’ seminary.  Later he worked as a teacher and a devoted leader of the Tsisho (Central Jewish School Organization) schools in various Polish cities.  He published articles on children’s psychology in Shul-vegn (School ways) in Warsaw (1934-1936).  During WWII, he departed for Russia and for a time was a soldier in the Red Army at the Stalingrad front.  He returned from there and then disappeared without a trace.  According to information from M. Ayznbud of Melbourne, he died later.

Source: M. Ayznbud, Lerer-yizker-bukh (Teachers memorial volume) (New York, 1952-1954).

MOYSHE GALEKH

MOYSHE GALEKH (1910-1943)

            He was born in Mariampol, Lithuania.  He worked as a journalist and contributor to the daily newspaper Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper) in Kovno—it was a folk, Yiddishist vehicle which began publication in 1931 and appeared until 1940 when the Bolshevik occupation of Kovno liquidated the Yiddish press and in its place created their own newspaper, Der emes (The truth).  He was later the news editor of the Zionist socialist daily Dos vort (The word) in Kovno which initially appeared in 1934.  In 1941 he was evacuated to Soviet Russia.  There he joined the Lithuanian division of the Red Army, and he died in 1943 in the great battle against the Germans at Oryon.

MOYSHE GLOYBERMAN

MOYSHE GLOYBERMAN (1892-April 5, 1919)

            He was born in Pinsk, Polesye, to observant, well-to-do parents.  He studied in religious elementary school, Talmud Torah, and later graduated from a Russian high school, and he was then employed as a secretary to a lawyer by the name of Nayditsh.  From 1912 he was an active leader and member of the Pinsk committee of the Bund.  In 1915, when the Germans occupied the city, he served as member of the civic committee which was charged with managing the city’s affairs.  He was the founder of the first Jewish children’s home, which later became the base for the secular Jewish school in Pinsk.  At the end of WWI, he was the mayor of Pinsk.  He was arrested when the Bolsheviks seized the city, and when the Poles returned he became secretary for the city council and a member of the Jewish aid committee.  He began writing in Russian for Pinskaya gazeta (Pinsk gazette) over the years 1912-1914.  He later was the regular Pinsk correspondent for Haynt (Today) in Warsaw, in which he wrote under the pen names “Mozes” and “Morris.”  In April 1919 he was arrested for no reason, together with other Pinsk Jews, during a meeting of the aid committee, and they were shot by the wall of a monastery.  This incident became known as the “tragedy of the thirty-five Pinsk martyrs.”  In memory of his good name, a Jewish school in Pinsk was named “Moyshele Gloyberman School.”

Sources: Toyznt yor pinsk (One thousand years of Pinsk) (New York, 1941), see index; Yeda am (Tel Aviv) (April 1953); Y. Sh. Herts, Doyres bundistn (Generations of Bundists), vol. 2 (New York, 1956), pp. 259-61; Khayim Sheskin, in Yeda am (Nissan, 1953).

SHMUEL GLUZ

SHMUEL GLUZ (d. October 1939)

            He was born in Rovno, Poland.  He was active there in the “Judenstaat Partei” (Jewish state party).  In 1935 he emigrated to Israel.  Initially he worked for the daily newspaper Doar hayom (Today’s mail), later being employed in various lines of work.  From 1935 until September 1939, he was the Israel correspondent for Unzer ekspres (Our express) in Warsaw.  His last correspondence piece—concerning the anti-Jewish Arab unrest—was published in the final issue of the newspaper, at the time of the German invasion of Poland in September 1939.  He contributed to Peysekh-blat (Passover newspaper) in Warsaw (1939), in which he published a story and reportage on life in Israel.  Over the years 1937-1939, he worked for the Tel Aviv division of the Palestine Post.  He drowned in the Kineret in the first days of October 1939.

Source: Sefer hashana shel haitonaim (The annual of newspapers) (Tel Aviv, 1951), p. 123.

SHIYE GILBOE-GLOYBERMAN (JEHOSHUA A. GILBOA)

SHIYE GILBOE-GLOYBERMAN (JEHOSHUA A. GILBOA) (May 13, 1918-February 4, 1981)

            Born in Pinsk, Poland, he received both a Jewish and general education.  He graduated from a Hebrew high school.  He lived in Pinsk until WWII, where he was active in the Zionist youth movement and a member of the central committee of “Hanoar hatsiyoni” (The Zionist youth) in Poland.  When the Bolsheviks occupied Pinsk, he was arrested for his Zionist activities and exiled for ten years to Siberian camps.  Liberated in 1939, by various means he made his way to Israel.  In February 1958 he made a study trip through the United States.

            He began writing in his youth and contributed to the Yiddish press in Poland until 1939.  Among others, he wrote for Haynt (Today) in Warsaw and Pinsker shtime (Pinsk voice).  In the state of Israel, he served on the editorial board of the afternoon newspaper Maariv (Evening) in Tel Aviv, in which he published stories, articles on literature, as well as political reports on Eastern Europe; he was co-editor from 1955.  He also placed pieces with: Moznaim (Balance), Molad (Birth), Gilyonot (Sheets), Hadoar (The mail), Davar (Word), Zemanim (Times), and in the Yiddish publications Di goldene keyt (The golden chain), and Letste nayes (Latest news), among others.  He compiled the anthology Geḥalim loḥashot (Whispering embers) (Tel Aviv, 1954), which included a selection of Hebrew and Yiddish literature from Soviet Russia, with his own translations and an afterword by the compiler.  He also published a series of books in Hebrew on the destruction of Jewish culture in Soviet Russia, a portion of which was translated into English.  In Yiddish, he wrote: Hebreisher bikher-shank (Hebrew book closet) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1965), 304 pp.  He published as well under the pseudonyms: Y. Avishov, Y. Maamin, and Y. Gitl.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Forverts (New York) (February 21, 1958); Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (February 22, 1958); Heymish (Tel Aviv) (February 1958).

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 161.]

YOYSEF-YEREMYE GLAS

YOYSEF-YEREMYE GLAS (1870-April 26, 1933)

            He was born in Chernigov (Chernihiv) region, Russia, into a Hassidic rabbinic family.  He received both a Jewish and general education.  He was one of the pioneers of Jewish secular schools and was therefore persecuted by opponents of such schools.  Later he was a manager of a Talmud Torah in Moscow.  He worked as a teacher in a yeshiva in Odessa, as well as a teacher of Hebrew in Grodno and at a high school in Vilna.  For a time he lived in London.  In 1927 he traveled (for the second time) to the United States and then returned to Poland.  He later worked as a teacher in a Polish Jewish high school in Lodz.  In the last years of his life, he was active as a pedagogue in Lithuania.  He began writing on pedagogical topics for Hayehudi (The Jew) in London, contributed to Hazman (The times) and Vilner tog (Vilna day) in Vilna, Lodzher tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper) in Lodz, Idishe shtime (Jewish voice) and Olmani (Our world) in Kovno, Dos folk (The people) in Riga, and Haynt (Today) in Warsaw, among others.  He was also the author of Hebrew books on pedagogy, and he translated works on pedagogy from other languages into Hebrew.  He also wrote under the pen name “Yosele.”  In 1927 he attempted in Antwerp to publish a Hebrew-language journal Moznaim (Balance).  He died in Vilkomir (Ukmerge) on a trip (for the third time) to the United States.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; M. Gerts, 25 yor yidishe prese in letland (25 years of the Yiddish press in Latvia) (Riga, 1933), p. 42; Frimorgn (Riga) (April 28, 1933); Hadoar (New York) (May 19, 1933); Kh. Sh. Kazdan, Fun kheyder un shkoles biz tsisho (From religious and secular primary schools to Tsisho) (Mexico, 1956), see index.

RUDOLF GLANTS (GLANZ)

RUDOLF GLANTS (GLANZ) (December 21, 1892-July 17, 1978)

            Born in Vienna, Austria, he received a traditional Jewish education.  He studied worldly subject matter systematically in school—history, pedagogy, and law at Vienna University.  In 1918 he graduated from university and acquired the title of doctor of law and state science.  He devoted himself to Jewish history and philology.  He was a docent among the researchers at YIVO.  In 1938 he emigrated to the United States.  He published a great number of works in the scholarly publications of YIVO in Yiddish and in English.  From his youth he was ideologically attached to Labor Zionism.  He ran the archive of the Labor Zionist movement in America and published a number of treatises about it in Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter) in New York.  Among his more important writings: “Di oysforshung fun dem yidishn eygns in dem eltern hentshke-loshn” (Exploration into the properties of Yiddish in thieves’ cant), Filologishe shriftn (Philological writings) 2 (Vilna, 1928); “A barikht fun a ben-dor vegn der fayerlekher protsesye fun di proger yidn dem 24tn april 1741” (A report from a contemporary on the solemn procession of Prague Jews on April 24, 1741), Arkhiv far der geshikhte fun yidishn teater un drame (Archive of the history of Yiddish theater and drama) 1 (Vilna-New York, 1930); “Di untershte shikhtn fun daytshn yidntum in 18tn y”h” (The substratum of German Jewry in the eighteenth century), Yivo bleter (Pages from YIVO) 11.5 (Vilna, May 1937) (also published in brochure form with the title Di untershte shikhn fun yidishn folk in di amolike daytshe lender [The substratum of the Jewish people in the former German lands] [Vilna: YIVO, 1938], 16 pp. in the series “Organizatsye fun der yidisher visnshaft” [Organization of Jewish scholarship], no. 20); “Di aynvanderung fun di daytshe yidn biz der 80er yorn” (The immigration of German Jews until the 1880s), in Geshikhte fun der yidisher arbeter-bavegung in di fareynikte shtatn (History of the Jewish labor movement in the United States), edited by I. M. Cherikover, vol. 1 (New York: YIVO, 1943); “Der kamf kegn batkhonim un klezmorim in daytshland onheyb 19tn y”h” (The struggle against wedding entertainers and wedding bands in Germany at the beginning of the nineteenth century), Yivo-bleter 28.2 (New York, 1946); “Der kuk fun di ‘mokreykers’ af dem sotsyal matsev fun di yidishe imigrantn” (The view of the muckrakers of the social condition of Jewish immigrants), Yivo-bleter 38 (New York, 1954); and a great number of analytical studies of works on problems of Jewish history, sociology, and philology, published in Yivo-bleter.  He was living in New York until his death.  In a letter, dated March 27, 1955, Glants wrote that, aside from a few pieces in Idisher kemfer, “everything else I wrote in German and it was translated by others,” and that he did not consider himself a writer in Yiddish—and he was right.

Sources: Yivo-biblyografye 1925-1941 (YIVO bibliography, 1925-1941) (New York: YIVO, 1943); Yivo-biblyografye 1942-1950 (YIVO bibliography, 1942-1950) (New York, 1955); Who’s Who in World Jewry (New York, 1955).

Zaynvil Diamant

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 161.]

FANYE (FEYGE-LEYE) GLANTS

FANYE (FEYGE-LEYE) GLANTS (February 25, 1886-May 16, 1953)

            She was the wife of Arn Glants-Leyeles (Aron Glantz-Leyeles).  She was born in Ruzhyn, Kiev region, into a prominent, well-to-do, commercial family.  She studied Yiddish, Hebrew, Tanakh, and Gemara with the Ruzhyn teacher and Enlightenment follower Zalmen-Arye—later known in Chicago as Simon Burns—and secular subject matter at the high school in Uman.  She graduated from the midwifery course of study in Kiev.  In her youth she was drawn into the revolutionary movement.  She was active among the Zionist socialists in Kiev, Odessa, Minsk, and Tshenstokhov (Częstochowa).  She was arrested in 1907 for her political activities and sent with a band of others to prison in Minsk.  In 1909 she emigrated to the United States.  She was a leader in the Jewish schools, in Yiddish Cultural Society, and chair of the women’s section of Tsiko (Tsentrale yidishe kultur-organizatsye [Central Yiddish Cultural Organization]).  She wrote stories and poems.  Using the pen name Ela Lehman, she published a story “Tsvey” (Two) in Inzikh (Instrospective) (January 1923), and she contributed to Inzikh in January 1937 with an elegy, entitled “Shive” (Seven days of mourning), on the death of her father.  In book form she published Der getrayer emes (The loyal truth), adapted from French, with illustrations by Zuni Maud (New York, 1918), 42 pp.  She died in New York.

Sources: Fanye (New York, 1954), 67 pp.; R. Levin, in Afn shvel (New York) (May-June 1953); Y. Hesheles, in Vayter (New York) (January 1955); N. B. Minkov, in Tsukunft (New York) (February 1955); Dr. Shloyme Bikl, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (March 6, 1955); Y. Botoshanski, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (May 12, 1955); M. Ravitsh, in Di goldene keyt (Tel Aviv) 21 (1955); M. Daytsh, in Ilustrirte literarishe bleter (Buenos Aires) (March-April 1957).

Zaynvl Diamant

LEYB GLANTS (LEIB GLANTZ)

LEYB GLANTS (LEIB GLANTZ) (June 13, 1898-January 28, 1964)

            He was born in Kiev, Ukraine.  He studied in religious primary school, yeshivas, secular high school, and at Kiev University, from which he was expelled for Zionist socialist activities.  He graduated from the Kiev Music Conservatory.  He lived from 1920 to 1927 in Kishinev where he was active in the Zionist movement.  From 1927 he was a cantor in New York and Los Angeles.  In 1954 he settled in the state of Israel.  He began writing articles in Hebrew for the Youth Zionist organ Mishmeret ḥadasha (New guard) in Kiev in 1920.  He was a contributor to the daily newspapers Der id (The Jew) and Unzer tsayt (Our time) in Kishinev over the years 1921 to 1927.  During those very years, he edited in Kishinev the weekly Erd un arbet (Land and labor), contributed as well to Haolam (The world) in London (1922), later placed pieces in Haynt (Today) and Moment (Moment) in Warsaw, as well as in: Tog (Day), Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter), and Farn folk (For the people) in New York; Idishe shtime (Jewish voice) in Los Angeles; Der veg (The way) in Mexico; Keneder odler in Montreal; Dorem-afrike (South Africa) in Johannesburg; Idishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) in Buenos Aires; and Davar (Word) in Tel Aviv.  He wrote (also using the pseudonym “Yeleg hatsair” [Yehuda Leib Gordin the younger]) on general political as well as Jewish community topics.  He was also a music critic and theater reviewer.  He composed music to prayers, as well as to poems by Hebrew and Yiddish poets.  His compositions were published by Bloch Publishing Co. in New York and Sifriya muzikalit (Musical library) in Tel Aviv, among others.  He was always involved in community affairs, primarily in the Zionist socialist movement, initially in Bessarabia and later in the United States.  He was also a delegate to Zionist congresses.  He was living until his death in Tel Aviv.

Source: Who’s Who in World Jewry (New York, 1955); Zeharim, kovets lizkor leyb glants (Luminous, in memory of Leyb Glants) (Tel Aviv, 1965), 319 pp.

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 161.]

YANKEV GLANTS (JACOB GLANTZ)

YANKEV GLANTS (JACOB GLANTZ) (1902-January 2, 1982)

            He was born in the Jewish colony of Novovitebsk, near Kherson, Ukraine.  He received a Jewish and a general education.  For a time he worked as a teacher of Yiddish and Yiddish literature in the ORT (Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades) school in Odessa.  From 1925 he was living in Mexico City, where he was worked at various trades and in business.  He was also an active leader in the schools.  He began writing poetry in Russian in 1917, and in Yiddish in 1927 he published in the collection Far baginen (Before dawn) in Mexico City.  Together with Yitskhok Berliner and Moyshe Glikovski, in 1928 he published the collection Dray vegn (Three ways).  His poems, literary essays, and current events articles appeared in Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves) in Warsaw, Tsukunft (Future) and Zamlbikher (Anthologies) in New York, Di goldene keyt (The golden chain) in Tel Aviv, Kiem (Survival) in Paris, and other magazines.  He was a contributor to the first Yiddish newspaper in Mexico, Di tsayt (The times).  Over the years 1936-1946, he served as editor of the literary supplement to Der veg (The way) in Mexico City, in which he published essays concerned with Yiddish literature.  Among his books: Poemes (Poems) (Mexico City, 1931), 99 pp.; Fonen un blut, shpanye 1936, lider un poemen (Banners and blood, Spain 1936, songs and poems) (Mexico City, 1936), 69 pp.; Trit in di berg, lider un poems, 1926-1936 (Pathways in the mountains, songs and poems, 1926-1936) (Mexico City, 1939), 292 pp.; H. leyvik in stil fun der epokhe, esey (H. Leivick, in the style of the era, an essay) (Mexico City, 1943), 98 pp.; A kezayes erd, epishe poeme (An olive-size piece of land, an epic poem) (Mexico City, 1950), 141 pp.; Fun ale navenad, gezamlte liter (From all the wandering, collected poetry) (Mexico City: Karmel-ort, 1974), 245 pp.; Kristobal kolon, poeme (Christopher Columbus, a poem) (Tel Aviv, 1980), 288 pp.  He edited: Baytrog (Contribution), “Mexican works on literature, art, criticism, and social issues” (Mexico City, 1936); and Meksikaner bleter (Mexican leaves), “for literature and issues of the day” (Mexico, 1949).  He died in Mexico City.

Zygmunt Turkow with Yankev Glants (right)

Sources: Alef Kats, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (August 22, 1940); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Idisher kemfer (New York), nos. 890 and 895 (1951); Y. Berliner, in Der veg (Mexico City) (May 16, 1953); Y. Vinyetski, in Der veg (May 16, 1953; March 1-6, 1958); Enciclopedia Judaica Castellana (Mexico City, 1949), p. 77; Who’s Who in World Jewry (New York, 1955).

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 160-61.]

HILLEL GLATSHTERN

HILLEL GLATSHTERN (1827-1874)

            He was the editor of Varshever yudishe tsaytung (Warsaw Jewish newspaper) which began publication in Warsaw on February 8, 1867.  The newspaper sought not to pick a quarrel either with the assimilated or with the Enlightened Jews, nor for that matter with the Orthodox or Hassidic Jews.  It thus avoided writing about actual events, satisfied with publishing information, fiction, and popular scientific material.  At the same time, however, the newspaper campaigned for the wealthy Jews to open factories to provide work for other Jews.  Among the contributors to the newspaper were Ayzik Meyer Dik, Paltiel Zamoshtshin, Moritz Gelkin, and Herts Naymanovitsh.  The newspaper appeared until January 23, 1868, altogether 54 issues.  Glatshtern was the father-in-law of Shmuel Peltin, editor of the Polish-language Izraelita (Israelite), and himself wrote in Polish as well.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; N. Mayzil, in Tsukunft (New York) (March 1924); Y. Shatski, Geshikhte fun yidn in varshe (History of the Jews in Warsaw) (New York, 1953), vol. 3, see index.

YISROEL GLATSHTEYN

YISROEL GLATSHTEYN (1894-1942)

            He was musician and writer.  In 1908 he sang as a chorister at Zandberg’s Grand Theater in Lodz.  He suffered from poverty and aspired to become a Jewish composer, to create Jewish music.  He later lived in Berlin.  He wrote musical compositions on Jewish themes and excelled in particular at children’s songs.  They were sung for many years in Jewish schools over virtually the entire world.  He was especially known and popular for the works: Marsh-lid (Marching song), Tsipele (Tsipele), Feld-arbet (Field work), and Blumen (Flowers).  His first major collection—Gezang un shpil (Song and play)—appeared in print in Warsaw in 1920: fifty songs and choral plays for children, written to the words of Moyshe Broderzon and Yitskhok Katsenelson.  These songs quickly became popular in Jewish schools throughout Europe and in the Americas.  He was the first person to compose a Yiddish opera Fatima (Fatima), text by Yitskhok Katsenelson, which Maurice Schwartz staged in New York.  He later settled in Berlin.  There he wrote important works of music on Jewish themes: Khurbn (Destruction) and Shulamis (Shulamit), which were published in New York by the publishing house of P. Kats (Metro Music Co.).  Those who knew him reported that he wrote treatises on music for the Yiddish press and periodicals.  As a Polish citizen, in 1939 he was deported from Germany.  During WWII, he remained in the Warsaw Ghetto.  He was active in the field of Jewish music, and he served as the musical director of the revived Warsaw Ghetto theater.  His name can be found on the list of those murdered in Warsaw.  Exact dates of his birth and death remain unknown.

Sources: Melekh Nayshtat, (Destruction and uprising of the Jews in Warsaw) (Tel Aviv, 1948), pp. 400-1; M. Gelbart, in Lerer-yizker-bukh (Teachers memory book) (New York, 1952-1954), pp. 101-2.

Zaynvl Diamant

YANKEV GLATSHTEYN (JAKOB GLATSTEIN)

YANKEV GLATSHTEYN (JAKOB GLATSTEIN) (1895-1942)

            Born in Lublin, he hailed from a prominent musical and literary family: son of the Lublin city cantor, R. Moyshele Glatshteyn; cousin of the poet Yankev Glatshteyn; and younger brother of the musician and choir director Yoysef-Shloyme Glatshteyn.  He received a traditional Jewish education.  In his early youth, he was a choir boy at his father’s synagogue.  During the years of WWI, he left for Warsaw.  There, with the help of his brother, he perfected his musical talents.  He worked as a singing teacher in the Yehudiya secondary school in Watrsaw.  He rapidly became a prolific composer of music for Yiddish workers’ and children’s songs.  In the early 1920s he won a prize from Tsisho (Central Jewish School Organization) for writing music for Yiddish songs.  He worked as a teacher of singing in the Warsaw Tsisho schools, director of school children’s choruses, and he directed the choruses of the Bundist youth organization “Tsukunft” (Future).  For many years, he labored indefatigably to inculcate in Jewish school children and youths the culture of song, the aesthetic sensibility for beautiful sound and melody, and he was therefore very popular among Warsaw Jewish working youth.  He wrote treatises on music and song for Grininke beymelekh (Little green trees) in Vilna, Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper) in Warsaw, and other youth, school, and music publications.  He acquired among laboring circles and then compiled a collection of popular labor and folksongs, with notation for singing and playing: Di fraye muze (The liberated muse) (Warsaw: Lire, 1918), 101 pp.  His performances with youth choruses throw light on the endeavors of Warsaw workers and cultural and school organizations.

            He stayed in the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII.  He experienced extremely difficult times.  He lived in dire straits.  His wife died in the ghetto of typhus, and he had to take care of his small child all by himself.  In 1940 he wrote a letter to his cousins Yankev and Mortkhe Glatshteyn in New York, saying that if they were able to rescue him, they should at least move to rescue his highly talented son who had already made a name for himself in the musical world, and a great musical future had been predicted for him as a piano virtuoso.  He carried on his musical activities in the ghetto in the realm of chorus singing and mass declamation and arranged concerts in an auditorium of the Warsaw Judaic Library.  He composed a melody for Yitskhok Katsenelson’s poem “Aroys in gezangen a yid af der gas” (Out goes a Jew into the street to sing), published in Dror-tsaytung (Freedom newspaper) in 1940.  He was murdered together with his son at Treblinka.

Sources: Y. Sh. Herts, Di geshikhte fun a yugnt (The story of a youth) (New York, 1946), pp. 286, 453-54, 527-28; Melekh Nayshtat, (Destruction and uprising of the Jews in Warsaw) (Tel Aviv, 1948), pp. 400-1; Lerer-yizker-bukh (Teachers memory book) (New York, 1952-1954), pp. 99-101.

YANKEV GLATSHTEYN (JACOB GLATSTEIN)

YANKEV GLATSHTEYN (JACOB GLATSTEIN) (August 20, 1896-November 19, 1971)

            He was born in Lublin.  He was a descendant of a musical family of religious followers of the Jewish Enlightenment: his father R. Yitskhok, a mitnaged (anti-Hassid) and lover of modern Yiddish literature, made a living from business in ready-made and finished furniture; his mother Yite-Rokhl, née Yungman, descended from a rabbinical pedigree; his uncle R. Moyshele Glatshteyn was the Lublin city cantor; and his cousins Yankev and Yoysef-Shloyme Glatshteyn were in their youth choirboys at their father’s synagogue, and later they made contributions with their musical knowledge to Jewish song as choir directors and composers.  Yankev Glatshteyn received a traditional, observant Jewish upbringing.  Until age sixteen he studied in religious primary schools with excellent teachers: Tanakh, Gemara, and the commentators—secular subject matter he acquired with private tutors.  He later prepared for and sat for examinations for the sixth class in high school as an external student.  In his early youth, his father acquainted him with modern Yiddish literature, and when he saw with what zeal his son read and read it aloud, and how his son threw himself into writing, he rejoiced in the thought that his own son might also grow up to be a Yiddish writer.  At age thirteen he went to Warsaw and there he met Y. L. Peretz, H. D. Nomberg, and Noyekh Prilucki to show them his writings.  At age seventeen Bal-Makhshoves accepted a story of his to publish in Fraynd (Friend).  This story was not published, though, because Glatshteyn had no patience waiting and withdrew the manuscript.  Due to the persecution of Jews, boycotts, and anti-Semitism, in 1914 he emigrated to join his uncle in the United States.  He arrived in New York on June 5 of that year, and in October 1914 he published his first piece, a story entitled “Di geferlekhe froy” (The dangerous woman), in the fifteenth jubilee issue of Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor).  Later, in the new, Americanized Jewish surroundings, he had for a certain period of time divested himself of his dreams of becoming a Yiddish writer.  He enthusiastically studied English and worked in various sweatshops.  He was not, however, fit for physical labor, aspired to study, and with the help of his relatives in 1918 he entered New York University to study law.  There he met N. B. Minkov, and thanks to their literary conversations, he renewed his literary activities.  His poetry, though, did not find favor with Sh. Yanovski, editor of Fraye arbeter shtime, who advised him rather to devote himself to his studies and become a lawyer.  However, when Glatshteyn sent in his poems, using the female pseudonym Klara Blum, Fraye arbeter shtime published them, and Yanovski even praised the “poetess Klara Blum” in an editorial.  Later, when Yanovski discovered who this “Klara Blum” was, he stopped publishing his poems.

            Aside from poetry, Glatshteyn also wrote stories.  Knowledgeable as he was of world literature and well-versed in modern Yiddish literature, his stories were written under the influence of de Maupassant and Avrom Reyzen.  Using the pen name “Y. Yungman,” he published in Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal) approximately one hundred stories.  In 1919 he began publishing poems in the New York journal Poezye (Poetry), edited by H. Gudelman, and it soon became apparent that Yiddish literature had acquired an original poetic talent.  N. B. Minkov introduced him to H. Leivick and Moyshe Leyb Halpern.  They befriended and encouraged him.  Together with Minkov and A. Leyeles, in 1920 he published a declaration concerning introspective poetry which laid the foundation stones of the Inzikh (Introspectivist) turn in Yiddish literature.  Glatshteyn became one of the most important representatives of this group and coeditor of its journal In zikh, in which he published poetry, articles, and essays.  In 1921 his first book of poems appeared: Yankev glatshteyn (New York: Kultur), 80 pp., which established his place at the center of modern Yiddish poetry.  His poems were distinguished from other poetic works of that era, noted Zalmen Reyzen, “with a strong intellectualism, with a genuine expressiveness, with a disclosure of the inner world by suggestion and association, and with the fine form of his refined free verse.”  He wrote for: Fraye arbeter shtime, Poezye, Oyfkum (Arise), In zikh, Tsukunft (Future), Undzer bukh (Our book), Kibetser (Joker), and Kundes (Prankster), among others.  Just like many other poets, he initially had a negative view of newspaper work, but later he became a member of the editorial staff of Naye varhayt (New truth) in New York, and in 1926 he became a regular contributor to Morgn-zhurnal.  Using the pseudonym “Y. T-an,” he wrote for Di naye varhayt Saturday feature pieces, and for Morgn-zhurnal he used the pen names Y. Yungman, Gimel Daled, Itskus, and Yakobus, among others.  In 1938 the editor of Morgn-zhurnal, D. L. Mekler, asked him to sign his column “Prost un poshet” (Plain and simple) with his real name.  Together with Mikhl Likht, in 1926 he edited the monthly magazine Loglen (Skins); over the years 1928-1929, he edited In zikh; and he served on the editorial collective of this journal, 1934-1938.  He travel to Europe in 1934, a trip which inspired him to write two prose works: Ven yash iz geforn (When Yash set out) and Ven yash iz gekumen (When Yash arrived), in which he revealed his mastery of the art of story-telling.  Years later, Shmuel Niger characterized him as: “No one has such distinctiveness, such a Yiddish of his own as Yankev Glatshteyn.  He is truly a maestro when he conducts his own orchestra with the instruments that he alone has refined….  His poetry and prose are so closely knitted together, so confused with each other such that one can not separate them—such is his work.  The rhythm comes from speech and, it would appear, from prose, but his speech, his prose has such rhythm and so frequently such conciseness and often such unexpected freshness, such a rush of expression, of word connections, of the structure of stanzas, of the number and course of its lines, and of the way and order in which they rhyme—that you experience it as poetry.”  In 1938 in his poem “A gute nakht dir, velt” (Good night to you, world), Glatshteyn predicted the great catastrophe imminently awaiting the world and especially the Jewish people.  His poem—a kind of alarm call and protest to a murderous-indifferent world—provoked numerous commentaries in the Yiddish press.  In fact, roughly 200 articles were written in response to this poem in newspapers and magazines everywhere that Yiddish writings appeared in print.  In 1940 he received the Louis Lamed Prize for his work of prose, Ven yash iz gekumen.  In early 1945 he began publishing a weekly column—entitled “In tokh genumen, arum bikher, mentshn un zakhn” (In essence, about books, people and things)—in Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter) in New York.  Under this rubric, he published some 600 essays, mainly reviews of newly published books concerned with general and Jewish cultural and literary issues.  A selection of these writings later appeared in two volumes under the same title.  In these essays he revealed himself to be one of the finest Yiddish stylists, like an art critic who plumbs the deepest depths of the artist’s innermost world.  He stopped writing this column in January 1957, and in his last piece for “In tokh genumen” (January 4) he wrote an explanation for this.

            The “third destruction” (Holocaust) mightily influenced Glatshteyn’s work.  He became one of the elegiac poets of exterminated Polish Jewry.  In his motifs lamenting the destruction, he expressed his hereditary musicality, his rootedness in Jewish lore.  The rise of the state of Israel at that time also developed artistically in him, and he became the singer—often with pain and sadness—of the Jewish people’s renaissance.

            Among his books: Yankev glatshteyn (New York, 1921), 80 pp.; Fraye ferzn (Free verses) (New York, 1926), 88 pp.; Kredos (Credos), poems (New York, 1929), 96 pp.; Di purim-gvardye (The Purim guard), a play (New York, 1931), 16 pp.; Yidishtaytshn (Yiddish meanings), poems (Warsaw: Kh. Bzshoza, 1937), 111 pp.; Ven yash iz geforn, a novel (New York, 1938), 240 pp., a second edition published by “Farband fun poylishe yidn” (Association of Polish Jews) in Buenos Aires appeared in 1957, 269 pp.; Emil un karl (Emil and Karl), a novel (New York, 1940), 171 pp.; Ven yash iz gekumen, a novel (New York, 1940), 304 pp.; Gedenklider (Memorial poems) (New York, 1943), 84 pp.; Yosl loksh fun khelem (Yosl the noodle from Chelm) (New York: Makhamadim, 1944), 47 pp., with music by Henekh Kon and illustrations by Yitskhok Likhtenshteyn; Shtralndike yidn (Jubilant Jews), poems (New York, 1946), 124 pp.; In tokh genumen, eseyen (In essence, essays) (New York, 1947; Buenos Aires: Kiem, 1960), 544 pp.; Dem tatns shotn, lider (Father’s shadow, poems) (New York, 1953), 192 pp.; Fun mayn gantser mi (For all my troubles), poems (New York, 1956), 393 pp., which was awarded the Kovner Prize by the Jewish Book Council of America and the Louis Lamed Prize as well; Di freyd fun yidishn vort (The delight of the Yiddish word) (New York: Kval, 1961), 208 pp.; Mit mayne fartogbikher (With my journals) (Tel Aviv: Peretz Publ., 1963), 569 pp.; A yid fun Lublin (A Jew from Lublin) (New York: CYCO, 1966), 128 pp.; Af greyte temes (On ready themes) (New York: CYCO, 1967), 414 pp.; Kh’tu dermonen (I keep recalling) (New York: Bergen-Belsen, 1967), 157 pp.; Gezangen fun rekhts tsu links (Singing from right to left) (New York: CYCO, 1971), 142 pp.; In der velt mit yidish, eseyen (In the world with Yiddish, essays) (New York, 1972), 462 pp.; Prost un poshet, literarishe eseyen (Plain and simple, literary essays) (New York, 1978), 454 pp.

On his sixtieth birthday, the National Jewish Workers Alliance published Glatshteyn’s volume of essays In tokh genumen (New York, 1956), 485 pp.; and in Israel was published Uvehagia yash, a translation of Ven yash iz gekumen by Shelomo Shemhod (Tel Aviv, 244 pp.).  Glatshteyn was a regular contributor to Tog-morgn-zhurnal (Daily morning journal) in New York, in which he published twice weekly his current-events column “Prost un poshet” his reactions to the most diverse general as well as Jewish events.  He also wrote a weekly article in the New York weekly newspaper Idisher kemfer.  He edited the mimeographed monthly journal Folk un velt (People and world), published by the “Jewish World Congress.”  In 1945, together with Shmuel Niger and H. Rogof, he edited the anthology Finf un zibetsik yor yidishe prese in amerike (Seventy-five years of the Yiddish press in America), published by the Y. L. Peretz Writers Union.  He also co-edited Idisher kemfer over the years 1954-1955, and he took an active role in Jewish cultural life in New York.  His speeches and lectures on cultural topics and on Yiddish literature drew an immense audience of listeners, and they excelled in their militancy on behalf of the respectability of Yiddish and Yiddish literature.  His sixtieth birthday was celebrated in New York, and a great number of articles were published in the international Yiddish press marking the day.  He was living in New York until his death.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1 (Vilna, 1928); Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol. 1 (New York, 1931); B. Rivkin, in Tsayt (New York) (August 21, 1921); Rivkin, Grunt-tendentsn fun der yidisher literatur in amerike (Basic tendencies in Yiddish literature in America) (New York, 1948), pp. 313-17; Kh. L. Fuks, in Lodzher folksblat (June 1922); Fuks, in Undzer shtime (Paris) (May 11, 22, 23, 1957); Kh. Krul, Arum zikh (Around itself) (Vilna, 1930), pp. 28-29; Y. Entin, in Idisher kemfer (July 7, 1939); M. Basin, Antologye fun amerikaner yidisher poezye (Anthology of American Yiddish poetry) (New York, 1940); A. Leyeles, in In zikh 54 (April 1940); Leyeles, in Di goldene keyt (Tel Aviv) 25 (1956); Leyeles, in Idisher kemfer (December 14, 1956); Dr. Shloyme Bikl, Detaln un sakhaklen, kritishe un polemishe bamerkungen (Details and sum totals, critical and polemical observations) (New York, 1943), pp. 85, passim; Dr. A. Mukdoni, in Morgn-zhurnal (April 14, 1943); Mukdoni, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (October 7, 1956); Y. Y. Sigal, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (August 9, 1943; April 1, 1945; August 27, 1945; September 23, 1946; March 10, 1947; June 20, 1947; November 30, 1951; July 20 and 27, 1953); Moyshe Shtarkman, Hemshekh-antologye (Hemshekh anthology) (New York, 1945), pp. 17-42; Yeshayahu Ustri-Dan, Bloye horizontn (Blue horizons) (Mexico, 1946), p. 198; M. Ravitsh, in Der veg (Mexico) (May 31, 1947); Ravitsh, in Keneder odler (January 28, 1957); B. Grobard, in Zamlbikher (New York) 8 (1948), pp. 410-23; Shmuel Niger, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (November 22, 1953); L. Domankevitsh, Fun aktueln un eybikn (From the real and eternal) (Paris, 1954), pp. 197-204; Y. Pat, Shmuesn mit yidishe shrayber (Conversations with Yiddish writers) (New York, 1954); Y. Rapoport, in Di goldene keyt 19 (1954); Rapoport, Oysgerisene bleter (Torn up pages) (Melbourne, 1957), pp. 97-137; Y. Yonasovitsh, in Di naye tsayt (Buenos Aires) (January 21, 1954); Yonasovitsh, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (August 25, 1956); N. Mayzil, in Yidishe kultur (New York) (August-September 1954); B. Tshubinski, in Fraye arbeter shtime (January 15, 1954); Shmerke katsherginski ondenk bukh (Memorial volume for Szmerke Kaczerginski) (Buenos Aires, 1955), pp. 38-42; Y. Rodak, Kunst un kinstler (Art and artists) (New York, 1955), p. 187; Sh. Leshtshinski, Literarishe eseyen (Literary essays) (New York, 1955), pp. 91-100; B. Y. Byalostotski, Kholem un vor, eseyen (Dream and reality, essays) (New York, 1956), pp. 149, passim; Shimshon Meltser, Al naharot (To the rivers) (Jerusalem, 1956), pp. 429, 441; Haentsiklopediya haivrit (Hebrew encyclopedia), vol. 10 (Jerusalem, 1956), pp. 849-50; A. Gordin, in Fraye arbeter shtime (December 28, 1956); Yankev Glatshteyn, “Fragn un entfers” (Questions and answers), Idisher kemfer (November 9, 1956); Glatshteyn, “A derklerung” (An explanation), Idisher kemfer (January 4, 1957); L. Faynberg, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (September 22, 1956); A. Oyerbakh, in Idisher kemfer (November 9, 1956); M. Yafe, in Di goldene keyt 26 (1956); Lebns-fragn (Tel Aviv) (June-July 1951); Dorem-afrike (Johannesburg) (August 1957); N. Y. Gotlib, in Keneder odler (May 28, 1956; March 1, 1957); P. Shteynvaks, in Keneder odler (September 3, 1956); A. Grinberg, in Tsukunft (New York) (March 1957); L. Shpizman, in Ilustrirte literarishe bleter (Buenos Aires) (January-February 1957); Y. Morgnshtern, in Idisher kemfer (March 29, 1957); G. Freyl, in Hadoar (New York) (Kislev, 1956); A. Volf Yasni, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (May 25, 1957; January 10, 1958); M. Shenderay, in Di yidishe tsaytung (Buenos Aires) (July 23, 1957); Y. I. (Yitskhok Ivri), in Bitsaron (New York) (Tamuz-Av, 1957); Sh. D. Zinger, in Undzer veg (New York) (October 1957); Kh. L. Fuks, in Fun noentn over, vol. 3 (New York, 1957), p. 220; K. Bartini, in Hapoel hatsair (Tel Aviv) (Shevet, 1958); Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 4 (New York, 1941); Who’s Who in World Jewry (New York, 1955); Cassels Encyclopedia of World Literature, vol. 2 (London); M. Daytsh, Yankev glatshteyn (Yankev Glatshteyn) (Tel Aviv, 1963); Dov Sadan, Avne miftan (Threshold of stones) (Tel Aviv: Peretz Publ., 1970), vol. 2, pp. 120-44.

Zaynvl Diamant

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 160.]

YOYSEF-SHLOYME GLATSHTEYN

YOYSEF-SHLOYME GLATSHTEYN (1890-194?)

            He was born in Lublin.  He hailed from the elite, musical, and literary Glatshteyn family.  His father was the city cantor, R. Moyshele Glatshteyn, and he was the older brother of the musicologist and choir director, Yankev Glatshteyn, and the cousin of the poet Yankev Glatshteyn.  From his early youth, he was a choirboy in his father’s synagogue.  He received a traditional Jewish education.  He studied in religious elementary schools and secular subjects with private tutors.  Later, he went to study music in Warsaw, graduating from the Warsaw Conservatory in 1912.  He became very interested in Jewish music.  From 1912 until after WWI, he was choir director under Cantor Hershman at the Warsaw Sinai Synagogue, as well as at the Adas Yeshurin school and at other important schools.  He was a teacher of music in Warsaw middle schools and at the schools of the Central Jewish School Organization (Tsisho).  He wrote numerous treatises on music and musical events for the Bundist Lebnsfragn (Life issues), Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper), and other Warsaw newspapers and magazines.  During WWII and the Nazi occupation, he remained in the Warsaw Ghetto.  He took part in concerts, led the choir, was a faithful preserver of all institutions and undertakings of Jewish music in the ghetto, and he served it with devotion.  He died in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Source: M. Nayshtat, Khurbn un oyfshtand fun di yidn in varshe (Destruction and uprising of the Jews in Warsaw) (Tel Aviv, 1948), pp. 400-1.

Zaynvl Diamant

SHMUEL GLAZERMAN

SHMUEL GLAZERMAN (March 21, 1898-September 18, 1952)

            He was born in Algarrobos, a Jewish town in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.  At the age of three he lost his father, and he was raised in the custody of his elder brother, the rabbi and ritual slaughterer of the town.  Until age fifteen he studied Jewish subject matter.  He also graduated from a state elementary school.  He then departed for Buenos Aires and there entered high school, but he left it at the fifth-year level.  He subsequently worked as a Yiddish teacher in the Borochov school in Buenos Aires, was secretary of “Agudat hamorim de’argentina” (Association of teachers in Argentina), and he was the first secretary of the “Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists in Argentina” (founded on the initiative of H. D. Nomberg).  In addition, he conducted a Yiddish radio hour in Buenos Aires.  He published in Di yidishe tsaytung (The Jewish newspaper), Naye tsayt (New times), and Idishe velt (Jewish world), among other serials, poems and a series of one-act plays, such as: “Yugend-laydn” (Suffering of youth) (1916); “Unzere kinder” (Our children) (1918); “Khmarne teg” (Gloomy days) (1922); and the three-act “Psule-erd” (Virgin earth) (1922).  That same year he published his book Yunge vegn (Young pathways) (Buenos Aires, 1922), 140 pp., which included his one-act plays: “In oyel” (In the tenting over a tomb), published earlier in Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter) in New York; “Tsvishn koyln” (Amid the coal); “Kale-kleyder” (A bride’s clothing); and the three-act play “In shnit-tsayt” (Harvest time)—all built upon the lives of the Jewish colonies in Argentina and Jewish life in Buenos Aires, and they were performed on the local Yiddish stage.  This collection also included his lyrical poems, translations of the Argentinian writer Carlos Guido y Spano, a series of poems “Kindvayz” (In childhood), and a scene entitled “Mazikim” (Mischievous children).  This collection was published by a close circle of the author’s friends.  His drama Zisye goy (Zisye the Gentile) was staged by Samuel Goldenburg in 1930.  In 1932 his work Teater, dramatishe shriftn funem idishn lebn in argentine (Theater, dramatic writings from Jewish life in Argentina) was published in Buenos Aires, 290 pp.  He also translated from Spanish into Yiddish a series of dramatic works which were performed on the Yiddish stage, among them: Shlekht gelibte (Poorly loved) by Jacinto Benavente [original: La malquerida]; Der meshugener got (The crazy God) by Jóse Echegaray [original: El loco dios]; Af der zindiker erd (On sinning earth) by Angel Guimerá [original: Terra baixa (Lowlands)]; and Di toyte, barg arop (The dead, downhill) by Florencio Sanchez [original: Barranca abajo, Los muertos (Downhill, the dead)], among others.  He was also the editor and publisher of the children’s journals, Blimelekh (Little flowers), of which five issues appeared in 1922, and Kinderland (Children’s world), of which three issues were published in 1937.  He also composed songs and compiled for schools a geography of Israel; was a cofounder of the journal of literature and the arts, Zeglen (Sails), 1924-1925; and served as editor of the illustrated weekly Far groys un kleyn (For big and small).  In his time, Glazerman was considered the only Yiddish writer who was born and raised in Argentina.  He died in Buenos Aires.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), vol.1; Sh. Rozhanski, Dos yidishe gedrukte vort in argentine (The published Yiddish word in Argentina), vol. 1 (Buenos Aires, 1941); Y. Botoshanski, “Di yidishe literatur in argentine” (Yiddish literature in Argentina), Tsukunft (August 1931); Botoshanski, Mame-yidish (Mother Yiddish) (Buenos Aires, 1941); Botoshanski, in Algemeyne entsiklopedye (General encyclopedia) (New York, 1957); Antologye fun der yidisher literatur in argentine (Anthology of Yiddish literature in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1944); Der shpigl (Buenos Aires) (August-September 1952); Sh. Rozhanski, in Idishe tsaytung (Buenos Aires) (September 22, 1952).

Zaynvl Diamant

DOVID GLAZERMAN

DOVID GLAZERMAN

            He was a ritual slaughterer in the town of Carlos Casares, in the colony of Mauricio, Argentina.  He wrote for the newspaper Fertaydiger (Defender)—he began writing on April 2, 1912, in a large newspaper format—in Carlos Casares.  There he wrote articles, a medley of Torah, and commentaries in an Argentinized Yiddish.  One example of his style: “We see in the writer’s talent such extraordinary ability that the spiritual sensation, when it hovers over the author’s mind, is drawn magnetically to his thoughts and presents him with divine truth.”  He served as editor of Argentiner yid (Argentine Jew), a weekly newspaper that appeared over the years 1917-1918 in Buenos Aires, and of Pinkes (Record), “monthly journal for literature, scholarship, history, and all Jewish and secular interests, published by the rabbinical bureau of Rabbi Glazerman in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Spanish” (first issue: October-November-December 1935, Buenos Aires).  He was the older brother of the writer Shmuel Glazerman.  Further biographical data and details are unknown.

Sources: P. Kats, Geklibene verk (Collected writings), vol. 5 (Buenos Aires, 1946), pp. 100, 103; V. Bresler, Antologye fun der yidisher literatur in argentine (Anthology of Yiddish literature in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1944), pp. 934, 936.