YOYSEF L. VAYNSHTEYN

YOYSEF L. VAYNSHTEYN

            He was born in Bialystok.  He moved to Cuba in the early 1920s.  He was a teacher and manager (1940-1949) of the Sholem-Aleichem school that was under the influence of leftists, in the Jewish supplementary schools named for Y. L. Perets (in Guanabacoa) and the Mendele Moykher Sforim school (in the town of Regalo, 1945-1956).  He was a member of the first Jewish writers’ group in Havana, “Yung-kuba” (Young Cuba), 1927-1928.  He debuted in print with a poem and a story in the first publication of the youth circle of the cultural association, Yunge shprotsungen (Young sprouts) (Havana, August 1928).  He published poems, stories, impressions, sketches, one-act plays, literary criticism, theater and film reviews, literary essays, and political articles under the pen names: Y. Reznik, Y. L. Altes, and Y. Mikhles, among others.  In 1943 was published, as an offprint of the “Cuban Jewish Word,” his pamphlet: Y. reznik, berl vaksman, yankl burshteyn, noske golomb, isak hurvits un bernard raynherts (Y. Reznik, Berl Vaksman, Yankl Burshteyn, Noske Golomb, Isak Hurvits, and Bernard Raynherts), men who were murdered by the Machado dictatorship in Cuba.  He edited the yearbook, Der shtral (The ray [of light]), a publication of the anti-tuberculosis committee in Cuba, 1939 and 1940.  He was an editorial board member of Kubaner bleter (Cuban pages), a monthly in Havana (1938-1939); Undzer shul (Our school) (1943); Kubaner yidish vort (Cuban Jewish word), appearing initially weekly, later two or three times each week (June 6, 1942-July 29, 1950).  He contributed work to: Informatsye-byuletin (Informational bulletin) (1935); Tribune (Tribune) (1936); Dos idishe vort (The Yiddish word) (1936-1937); Kunst un kultur (Art and culture) (1937); Yubiley-byuletin (Jubilee bulletin) (1938); Der anti-natsi (The anti-Nazi) (1941); Unzer hilf (Our aid) (1942); Havaner lebn (Havana life), almanac (1943); 7ter November (November 7^th), almanac (1946); Draysik yor sovetn-farband (Thirty years of the Soviet Union) (1947).  In 1950 he moved to Buenos Aires, where he worked as a teacher in a Jewish day school.

Sources: Y. Reznik, in Havaner lebn (Havana), almanac (1943), p. 304; Leyzer Ran, Hemshekh af kubaner erd (Continued on Cuban soil) (Havana, 1951), pp. 61, 69.

Leyzer Ran