ZISHE
VAYNPER (WEINPER) (March 15, 1893[1]-January 27, 1957)
This was the literary name of Zise
Vaynperlikh, born in Trisk (Turiysk), Volhynia, Ukraine. He was raised in a Hassidic environment of
the Trisker rebbe’s court, where his father (Yitskhok-Leyb) was a cantor and an
intimate of the rebbe, R. Yankev-Leybenyu.
He studied in religious elementary school, in the yeshivas of Rovno and
Brisk, and in the small Hassidic synagogue.
At age sixteen, he turned his attention to secular subjects, diligently
read Hebrew and Yiddish literature, lived in a number of cities and towns in
Ukraine and Poland, made his way by teaching or bookkeeping, and began to test
his capacity with Yiddish poetry. In
1910 he lived for a time in Warsaw where he published for the first time a pair
of poems in one of the holiday sheets at that time. He moved to the United States in 1913, worked
in various trades in New York, mostly as a house painter, and later became a
teacher in one of the secular Jewish schools that sprung up just at that
time. In 1914 he published his first
poem in America in Dos idishe folk
(The Jewish people). Between the two
world wars and later (with a break of just two years, when in 1918 he joined
the Jewish Legion of the British army and left to fight in the Near East, by
the borders of the Land of Israel), he published poems and later stories and
articles on literature and community cultural topics in: Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal), Fraye arbeter shtime (Voice of free labor), Varhayt (Truth), Naye velt (New
world), Tsukunft (Future), Kinder zhurnal (Children’s journal), and
Fraynd (Friend), organ of the
Workmen’s Circle—all in New York; and Literarishe
bleter (Literary leaves) in Warsaw; among others. He contributed as well to the anthologies: Mentsh tsu mentsh (Person to person) and
Ist-brodvey (East Broadway)—in New
York. He edited the small monthly Der onhoyb (The beginning), around which
gathered poetry beginners, in New York (1918—before he joined the Jewish
Legion); published and edited over the course of four months the literary
journal Baym fayer (By the fire) in
Philadelphia (1920); edited (together with B. Grobard and M. L. Halpern) the
two volumes of the journal Otem
(Breath) (New York, 1922); edited from 1924 the monthly literary and art journal
Di feder (The pen); and later (1932)
edited the monthly Oyfkum (Arise),
three issues with M. L. Halpern. His
books include: Fun unzer land (From
our land) (New York, 1920), 98 pp.; Ratmya
(Ratmya) (Phiadelphia, 1921), 76 pp.; Bay
der greblye (By the embankment), a poetry collection (New York, 1922), 128
pp.; Gold un grin (Gold and green)
(New York, 1925), 188 pp.; Der bafrayter,
operete in eyn akt (The liberator, an operetta in one act) (New York,
1925), 40 pp.; Der gildener hon (The
golden rooster) (New York, 1925), 125 pp., second enlarged edition (Buenos
Aires, 1948), 173 pp.; Eygns (One’s
own) (New York, 1929), 160 pp.; Geklibene
lider (Collected poems) (New York, 1932), 304 pp.; Idishe shriftshteler (Yiddish writers), vol. 1 (New York, 1933),
158 pp., vol. 2 (New York, 1936), 158 pp.; Untervegs
(Paths), poetry (New York, 1935), 64 pp.; Moyshe-leyb
halpern (Moyshe-Leyb Halpern) (New York, 1940), 124 pp.; Mitn yidishn legyon (With the Jewish
Legion) (New York, 1942), 318 pp.; Dos
gezang funem gloybikn (The song of the believer) (New York, 1943), 313 pp.;
Af di zamdn fun yehude (On the sands
of Judah) (New York, 1946), 253 pp.; Baym
grend kenyon (At Grand Canyon) (New York, 1947), 143 pp.; Poemen vegn di neviim (Poems about the
Prophets) (New York, 1951), 200 pp.; A
gast fun amerike, roman (A guest from America, a novel) (New York, 1953),
308 pp.; Leyd un freyd, lider un poemen
(Sorrow and joy, poetry) (New York, 1954), 288 pp.; Shrayber un kinstler (Writer and artist) (New York, 1958), 348
pp. An anthology of Vaynper’s poems in
English translation was also published in New York in 1936.[2]
Vaynper’s first poems, written in
Ukraine (1918), possessed a freshness and an authentic melodiousness of
nature. His ideological orientation can
be found in the first half of his writing career until roughly 1937—he was
always moving; he stood with the ethnic radicalism of the “Sholem Aleichem Folk
Institute” and indeed to the left Labor Zionists. Following the first World Jewish Culture
Congress in Paris (September 1937), Vaynper switched to the camp of the
Communist Morgn-frayhayt (Morning
freedom) and from that point in time was one of the most important leaders in
IKUF (Jewish Cultural Association)—the organization that arose in the wake of
the Parisian congress of 1937. He died
in New York.
As Froym Oyerbakh put it: “His
lyrical poem has a narrative quality, and he wrote a great number of narrative
poems that possess a lyricism, both humorous and with the charm of a Jewish
folktale. The looseness of their
narrative quality emerges in his verse.
He is not restrained in his verse, but it pours out broadly with a
poetic spaciousness which often froths over the edges…. From his Hassidic environment, from Ukrainian
nature, he conveys a celebration that we sense in his poems, even in the sad
ones. He rejoices in sadness, and he
does not lament it.”
Sources:
Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; M.
Olgin, in Yidishe kultur (New York)
(September-October 1939); Kalmen Marmor, in Yidishe
kultur (February-March 1942); N. Mayzil, in Yidishe kultur (April 1943; March 1952; August 1953); B. Rivkind,
in Yidishe kultur (January 1947);
Avrom Reyzen, in Di feder (New York)
(1949); A. Glants, in Tog-morgn zhurnal
(New York) (January 30, 1957); Y. B. Beylin, in Frayhayt (New York) (February 11, 1957); Oyerbakh, in Tog-morgn zhurnal (February 4, 1957);
Kh. Liberman, in Forverts (New York)
(February 11, 1957); A. Almi, in Fraye
arbeter shtime (New York) (March 8, 1957); A. Blum, in Tsukunft (New York) (March 1957); M. Rubinshteyn, in Di shtime (Mexico City) (February 1,
1958).
Borekh Tshubinski
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