AVROM-YITSKHOK GRAFMAN

AVROM-YITSKHOK GRAFMAN (April 1891-1941/1942)

            He was born in Yadov (Jadów), Warsaw region, Poland.  He studied in religious elementary school and in a yeshiva, later graduating from a middle school in Warsaw.  In 1910 he began to publish poems and sketches in various Yiddish newspapers in Warsaw.  From 1912 he was a regular contributor to Moment (Moment) in Warsaw, for which he wrote feature pieces and topical articles.  He published the anthologies Friling (Spring), Goldene shtraln (Golden rays), and In shvere tsaytn (In difficult times) (Warsaw, 1917), among others.  In 1921 he joined the Jewish People’s Party in Poland and edited (1921-1922) the popular weekly newspaper Di idishe tribune (The Jewish tribune).  In 1924 he began to publish the popular magazine Di ilustrirte vokh (The illustrated week).  With the outbreak of WWII, he left for Vilna.  Having no time to escape when the Germans took Lithuania, he was killed in 1941 or 1942.  Among his books: Zangen, lider (Stalks of corn, poems) (Warsaw, 1921), 80 pp.  He also wrote under the pseudonyms: Izidor G., A. Giml, Dr. A. Gloyber, and the like.  He was one of the dynamic new journalists and new editors in the Warsaw press, with a strong sense for the sensational.  He would powerfully dramatize and even poeticize his news reporting.  He was confined to the Riga ghetto and was deported from there to his death in Auschwitz.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Dr. R. Feldshuh, Yidisher gezelshaftlekher leksikon (Jewish community handbook) (Warsaw, 1939), vol. 1; Z. Segalovitsh, Tlomatske draytsn (13 Tłomackie St.) (Buenos Aires, 1946); M. Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 2 (Montreal, 1947).

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 173.]