YISROEL GITELSON

YISROEL GITELSON (b. 1914)

            This was the pen name of Yisroel Vitsentovski, born in Lodz, Poland, into a Hassidic family.  He studied in religious elementary school and yeshiva, and secular subject matter with private tutors.  He later became a laborer.  Until WWII he was living in Warsaw and was a technical contributor to Di naye folkstsaytung (The new people’s newspaper).  He later departed for Russia, where he was arrested and placed in camps.  He returned to Poland in 1946 and settled in Lodz.  He left for Paris in late 1947, and from there he emigrated to Australia.  He published his first piece in the Forverts (Forward) in New York in 1947, an essay concerning his close friend, the murdered Lodz poet Simkhe-Bunem Shayevitsh.  He also contributed essays on literature and art, as well as stories and articles, to: Unzer shtime (Our voice) in Paris; Dorem-afrike (South Africa) in Johannesburg; Oystralishe yidishe nayes (Australian Jewish news) and Unzer gedank (Our thoughts) in Melbourne; Ilustrirte literarishe bleter (Illustrated literary leaves) in Buenos Aires; Nyu-yorker vokhnblat (New York weekly newspaper); and Hayntike nayes (Today’s news) in Tel Aviv; among others.  Portions of his work “Gutkeyts motivn in khsides” (Gutkeyt’s motives in Hassidism) were published in Byalistoker shtime (Voice of Bialystok) in New York (September-October 1952).  He also published under the name Y. Vitsentovski.

Source: Kh. L. Fuks, in Fun noent over 3 (New York, 1957).