IRME
(YIRMYAHU) DRUKER (December 15, 1906-1982)
He was born in Chernobyl, not far
from Kiev, Ukraine. He graduated from
the Jewish Pedagogical Technicum in Odessa.
His first publication was a critical treatment of the novel Der step ruft (The step beckons) by Note
Lurye, which appeared in a journal in Kharkov in 1929. He also published in: Odeser arbeter (Odessa laborer), Prolit (Proletarian literature), Shtern (Star) in Kharkov, Shtern
in Minsk, Farmest (Challenge) in
Kiev, and others. Among his books: Sholem-aleykhem, kritishe etyudn
(Sholem-Aleykhem, critical studies) (Kiev: Ukrainian state
publishers for national minorities, 1939), 99 pp.; Sholem-aleykhem, byografishe fartseykhenungen (Sholem-Aleykhem,
biographical notes) (Kiev: Ukrainian state
publishers for national minorities, 1939), 82 pp., with Shloyme Bilov; Klezmer, roman (Musicians, a novel)
(Kiev: Ukrainian state publishers for national
minorities, 1940), 172 pp., new edition (Moscow, 1976), 338 pp.; Der zeyde mendele (Mendele, the
grandfather) (Warsaw: Yidish bukh, 1964), 139 pp.; Literarishe eseyen (Literary essays) (Moscow: Sovetish heyland,
1981), 62 pp. His work was also included
in: Almanakh fun yidishe sovetishe
shrayber (Almanac from Soviet
Jewish writers) (Kharkov, 1934).
After WWII, he settled in Odessa, where even after Stalin’s pogroms
against Yiddish culture in 1948, he did not cease preparing longer works in
Yiddish and made strenuous efforts to support Jewish cultural life in
Odessa. The critics strongly praised his
book Klezmer for “a great deal of
folkloristic material” and its clearly drawn characters. In his last years, he contributed frequently
to Sovetish heymland (Soviet
homeland) in Moscow.
Sources:
Shmuel Niger, in Tsukunft (New York)
(February 1930); Sh. Bilov, in Sovetishe
literatur (Kiev) (March 1941); N. Y. Gotlib, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (March 13, 1942); A. Kushnirov, in Naye prese (Paris) (July 27, 1945); Eynikeyt (Moscow) (February 16, 1946;
June 1, 1947); H. Vaynraykh, Blut af der
zun (Blood on the sun) (New York, 1950), p. 51.
[Additional
information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon
fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New
York, 1986), col. 203.]
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