YANKEV-YITSKHOK VOHLGELERNTER

YANKEV-YITSKHOK VOHLGELERNTER (December 14, 1899-May 30, 1960)

            He was born in Myekhov (Miechów), Kelts (Kielce) district, Poland, into a rabbinic family which drew its pedigree from the Seer (Ḥoze) of Lublin.  He studied in religious elementary school and in yeshivas.  He received rabbinical ordination at age twenty.  From 1919 he was an active leader of Agudat Yisrael and of the Bays-Yankev school movement [for girls] in Poland.  In 1922 he settled in Toronto, Canada.  He was a cofounder of a number of institutions connected to religious education.  He began his literary activities with poetry and articles in Dos yudishe vort (The Jewish word) in Warsaw, edited by Nokhum-Leyb Vayngot, and later he was a cofounder of and contributor to the Orthodox daily newspaper Der yud (The Jew) (Warsaw, 1920-1921).  He was a regular contributor to Der idisher zhurnal (The Jewish journal) in Toronto, where he was in charge of a special section, using the pen name Dr. Yehudis Froydman, and published a series entitled “Verter fun groyse yidn” (Words of great Jews), which concerned the weekly portion from the Torah.  He also wrote children’s poetry.  He edited the monthly Haderekh (The path) in Toronto (1943); and Yoyvl-bukh talmetoyre eyts khayim (Jubilee volume for the Talmud-Torah Eitz-Chaim), together with N. Shemen (Toronto, 1943), 194 pp. in Yiddish, 44 pp. in Hebrew, and 38 pp. in English, in which he published poems and articles.  He researched and collected documents for a bibliography of Yiddish and Hebrew publications of and about the Orthodox movement throughout the entire world.  He had prepared for publication two books: Lernbukh far yidish (Textbook for Yiddish) and Kinder-lider (Children’s poems).  He was living in Toronto, serving as administrator of the Eitz-Chaim Talmud Torah, until his death.

Khayim Leyb Fuks