BINYUMIN DEMBLIN

BINYUMIN DEMBLIN (September 13, 1897-January 27, 1976)

            This was the pen name of Yoysef-Binyumin Taytlboym (Teitelbaum).  He was born in Modzhits (Modrzyc, Dęblin-Modrzyc), Poland.  He studied in religious elementary school.  At age eleven he began studying at the synagogue study hall.  Before his bar-mitzvah, he surreptitiously left home for Radom and was hired there as an apprentice to a hat maker.  He worked from dawn till halfway through the night and experienced all manner of trouble and harassment from a journeyman at the time.  In bed, after a long day of difficult work, with a little candle he learned to write and began reading Yiddish literature.  During the years of WWI, he lived and worked in Warsaw.  At the end of 1919, he left for Paris where he lived for a year.  In January 1921 he emigrated to the United States.  He had begun writing around 1916.  At the time he published a sort of reportage piece in a publication of the Warsaw trade unions.  From Paris he sent reportage essays to Lebns-fragen (Life issues) in Warsaw.  In New York he published sketches and stories in: Gerekhtikeyt (Justice), Forshrit (Progress), Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor), Forverts (Forward), Tsukunft (Future), Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter), Unzer tsayt (Our time), Zamlbikher (Anthologies, edited by H. Leivick and Y. Opatoshu), and in provincial publications as well.  He also wrote for Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper) in Warsaw, Di prese (The press) in Buenos Aires, and Letste nayes (Latest news) in Tel Aviv, among others.  Among his books: Afn shvel (At the threshold), written under the name Binyumen Taytlboym (Warsaw, 1933), 256 pp.; Vest said (West Side) (New York, 1938), 201 pp.; Tsvey un a driter, roman (Two and a third one, a novel) (New York, 1943), 195 pp.; Erev nakht (Twilight), first volume of a trilogy (Tel Aviv-New York, 1954), 299 pp., winner of an award from the Louis Lamed Fund; Tsankendike likht, roman (Flickering light, a novel) (New York: CYCO, 1958), 320 pp.; Af eygenem barot, roman (In one’s custody, a novel) (vol. 2 of Erev nakht) (New York: Sh. Zimzun, 1961), 382 pp.; Af dray kontinentn, geklibene noveln (On three continents, collected stories) (Mexico City: Mendelson-fond, 1963), 411 pp.; In der velt arayn (In the world) (vol. 3 of Erev nakht) (New York: Sh. Zimzun, 1965). 398 pp.; A fremde velt (An alien world) (vol. 4 of Erev nakht ) (Tel Aviv: Yisroel bukh, 1973), 123, 359 pp., two volumes in one; A frende velt was published in the Forverts (May 170-August 2, 1970), under the title Unter fremde himlen (Under alien skies).  In 1954 Vest said was published in Tel Aviv in a Hebrew translation by Shimshon Meltsar: Dimdume layla.  Over the years 1939-1943, he coedited the anthologies of Hemshekh (Continuation) in New York.  In Poland he was active in the Bund and in unions in the needle trades.  In 1938 he was secretary of the Yiddish Pen Club in New York.  He was an employee, 1939-1946, of the Joint Distribution Committee and worked for the United Jewish Appeal.  His literary name stemmed from the city of his birth.  Among his other pen names: Y. Burlak and Yoysef Varshavski.  “B. Demblin belong to a type of prose writer,” noted Sloyme Bikl, “who honestly earned the adjective rugged.  He possessed a frugality and thus an unhandicapped capacity.  He rarely lapsed into a tone of pathos, but his style had temperament, albeit often one and the same temperament.”  “B. Demblin arrived,” wrote Yankev Glatshteyn, “with powerful steps—from his very first book….  He has a sharp eye for social change within the immensity of America….  He is the cautious peddler, the one who treats every sentence with strict care.”  He was living in New York and died in Miami.

Sources: Shmuel Niger, in Tog (New York) (March 18, 1928; August 12, 1934; May 7, 1939; November 21, 1954); Niger, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (January 2, March 6, and October 30, 1955); Dr. A. Mukdoni, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (August 15, 1934; March 3, 1937); Mukdoni, in Tsukunft (New York) (August 1937); Y. Botoshanski, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (July 28, 1937; December 25, 1940; January 21, 1955); Y. Bashevis, in Tsukunft (April 1939); Kh. Sh. Kazdan, in Foroys (Warsaw) (April 28, 1939); Y. Rapoport, in Fraye arbeter shtime (New York) (February 17, 1939); H. Rogof, in Tsukunft (June 1939); M. Ravitsh, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (October 28 and November 28, 1955); Ravitsh, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv), (October 28, 1955); Y. Lefshits, in Veker (New York) (September 1, 1955); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (February 24, 1956); Shloyme Bikl, in Tsukunft (May-June 1955); D. Naymark, in Forverts (New York) (January 12, 1958); A. Leyeles, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (February 8, 1958); Sh. D. Zinger, in Undzer veg (New York) (March 1958).