LOUIS HARKAVY

LOUIS HARKAVY (b. 1888)

            He was born in Navaredok (Novogrudok), Byelorussia, a cousin of Alexander Harkavy.  He moved to the United States in his youth and there graduated from high school and studied medicine for a short time.  While still quite young, he debuted in print with a Hebrew-language poem in Hatsfira (The siren) in Warsaw.  Later, in 1918, he switched to Yiddish.  Over the years 1918-1919, he wrote sketches and stories about Jewish life on the East Side of New York for Forverts (Forward) in New York.  With the founding of Frayhayt (Freedom), later known as Morgn-frayhayt (Morning freedom), he became a regular contributor.  He published stories there about workers’ lives.  He also contributed to such publications of “Proletpen” (Proletarian pen) as the anthologies Yunyon-skver (Union square) and Der hamer (The hammer), among others.  He also published in Hebrew in Hadoar (The mail) in New York.  He used the pen name: L. Viner.  He was last living in New York.  His wife was the sculptor Mina Harkavy.

Sources: Shmuel Niger, in Der tog (New York) (January 25, 1931); Al. Pomerants, in Proletpen (Kiev, 1935), p. 204.