AVROM
VEVYORKE (AVRAHAM VIEVIORKA) (1887-December 15, 1935)
He was born in the town of Babyak
(Babiak), Kalish (Kalisz) district, Poland.
He came from a Hassidic family.
His father was a ritual slaughterer and his younger brother the Yiddish
writer and journalist, Volf Vevyorke. Avrom
received a strongly religious Jewish education and prepared to become a rabbi. In his youth he was drawn to the Labor Zionist
Party. He began writing while still
young, publishing his first stories and poems in the daily newspaper Der veg (The way) in Warsaw in 1906 and
in the weekly Romantsaytung (Fiction
newspaper) in Warsaw in 1907. He moved
to Galicia in 1908, and there he devoted himself thoroughly to his literary
pursuits, took part in a competition in Idisher
vokhnblat (Jewish weekly newspaper) in New York, won the prize for his
story “Der bal-tshuve” (The penitent), and from that point forward frequently
published his work in a variety of American periodicals. From 1911 he was a contributor to and for a
time literary editor as well of Tog
(Day) in Cracow, edited by Yoyne Krepl.
In 1912 he published and edited in Berlin Dos bukh (The book), a “monthly periodical for art and criticism,”
in which he published the first chapters of his novel “Der misboyded” (The
eremite), also poems and (using the pen names: A. Byelko and Ab״g)
current events articles, reviews, notices, and the like. He later lived in Antwerp and London, where
in 1912 he edited a Shvues-blat
(Shavuot sheet) and the weekly Dos
yudishe vort (The Jewish word). He
placed work in Avrom Reyzen’s Der nayer
zhurnal (The new journal) in Paris in 1913, Di tsayt (The times) in London (edited by Morris Meyer), and Dos naye lebn (The new life), “an
anthology of literature, art, and criticism” (London, 1916). That year, 1916, he left for Russia, where in
1917, after the October uprising, he stood with the Bolsheviks. He worked for a time as a letter censor in
the Jewish Commissariat. In 1920 he
moved to Moscow, and there he was a close contributor to Emes (Truth) until 1930. He
also contributed to the collection Shtrom
(Current) and other periodicals, and he wrote several plays, such as: Honenkrey, a misterye in tsvey aktn
(Cock’s crow, a mystery in two acts), written in verse, in which he depicted
the Bolshevik Revolution in the environs of a petit bourgeois Jewish town; 137 kinder heyzer (137 children’s
homes), later published in book form with the title Af der grenets (At the border); Naftoli
botvin (Naftaly Botvin) of 1929, staged by the Jewish state theater in
Moscow and other cities in Russia. He
would later write other plays: Drayendike
fligl (The twisted wing), Der step
brent (The steppe is burning), A
patsh (A slap), Mayn soyne (My
enemy), and Di mishpokhe maymon (The
family Maymon), among others. His effort
to rehabilitate Shomer’s (Nokhum-Meyer Shaykevitsh) name
in Yiddish literature aroused considerable attention and a variety of opinions
to his journalistic writings—in connection with Sholem-Aleykhem’s “Shomers
mishpet” (Shomer’s trial) of 1888; this effort of his was expressed in a series
of articles published in the Soviet and American Yiddish press and later in his
book Revizye (Revision) of 1931.
His books include: Himl un erd (Heaven and earth), Hassidic
tales, monologues, and sketches (Lemberg: Kh. Itskovitsh, 1909), 78 pp.; Libshaft (Love), poetry (Cracow:
Shulamis, 1911), 80 pp.—in Zalmen Reyzen’s Leksikon,
this is listed as Benkshaft (Longing)
(Lemberg: Shulamis, 1909), 80 pp.; Baladn
(Ballads) (Cracow: Dos bukh, 1912), 49 pp.—including “Di sreyfe” (The blaze),
“Der tsadek in tol” (The pious man in the valley), and “Bay di toyern fun roym”
(At the gates of Rome); Farloshene likht
(Light extinguished), stories of Hassidic life (Vilna: B. Kletskin, 1923), 222
pp.; Af a vaysn boym (On a white
tree), a play in four acts (Vilna: B. Kletskin, 1923); Honenkrey, a misterye in tsvey aktn (Moscow, 1923), 63 pp.; Der oysleg fun yidish (The spelling of
Yiddish) (Moscow: Shul un bukh, 1926), 45 pp.; Af der grenets, a comedy in four acts (Moscow, 1928), 69 pp.—staged
initially by the Moscow state Yiddish theater on June 8, 1936, as a musical comedy
with the title 137 kinder-heyzer; Naftoli botvin, a drama in four acts
(Minsk, 1929), 80 pp.—staged first by the Yiddish state theater of Byelorussia
on December 12, 1927; Der step brent,
a play in three acts (Kiev, 1930), 86 pp.; Revizye
(Kharkov-Kiev, 1931), 222 pp.; Unzer yat
naftole (Our guy Naftole), “A drama for youngsters, Communist youth, and
pioneers,” a reworking of the play Naftoli
botvin (Kharkov, 1932), 66 pp.; Yidsektsye
mapp (The Jewish section of MAPP [Moskovskaia assotsiatsiia proletarskikh
pisatelei, or Moscow association of proletarian writers]), a drama (Kharkov,
1932), 103 pp.; In shturem (Under
assault), articles on literature and theater (Kharkov-Kiev, Ukrainian state publishers for national
minorities, 1932), 148 pp.; Der
stil fun der proletarisher literatur (The style of Proletarian literature)
(Kharkov, 1932), 63 pp.; Dramatishe
shriftn (Dramatic writings) (Kharkov: Literatur un kunst, 1933), 404 pp.; A kholem in a zumer-nakht (A dram on a
summer’s night), a comedy in three acts (Kharkov, 1934), 80 pp. He also compiled: In shotn fun tlies, almanakh fun der yidisher proletarisher literatur
in di kapitalistishe lender (In the shadow of the gallows, an almanac of
Yiddish proletarian literature in the capitalist countries) (Kharkov-Kiev,
1932), 347 pp; Der shlogler hot dos vort
(The shock troop has the word) (Kharkov-Kiev: Literatur un kunst, 1932), 236
pp. He translated Upton Sinclair’s Kenig koyl (King coal) (Moscow, 1925),
389 pp.; and Johannes R. Becher’s Maysim
maskarad (Tales of masquerade) (Kharkov-Kiev, 1931), 45 pp.; among
others. His work was included in: Shlakhtn (Battles)
(Kharkov-Kiev, 1932); Almanakh,
fun yidishe sovetishe shrayber tsum alfarbandishn shrayber-tsuzamenfor (Almanac, from Soviet Jewish writers to the
all-Soviet conference of writers) (Kharkov, 1934); and Der veg fun farat, kamf kegn bundizm un menshevizm in der yidisher proletarisher
literatur (The way of betrayal, the struggle against
Bundism and Menshevism in Jewish proletarian literature) (Moscow, 1932). He died of a heart ailment in Kiev.
His wife ESTHER VEVYORKE, sister of
the Soviet Yiddish writer Noyekh Lurye, translated from German into Yiddish: In shotn fun elektrishn shtul (In the
shadow of the electric chair [original: Im Schatten des elektrischen Stuhls]) by Hermynia Zur Mühlen (Kiev,
1932), 62 pp., and carried on other literary work in Riga. Her fate remains unknown after 1948.
Sources:
Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1
(under “Vyevyorka”); Shmuel Niger, in Literarishe
bleter (Warsaw) (April 29, 1927); Niger, in Tsukunft (New York) (November 1934; January 1947); Niger, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (March 23,
1956); Y. Bronshteyn, in Prolit
(Kharkov) (March-April 1930); Avrom Reyzen, in Tsukunft (August 1930; February 1931); M. Khashtshevatski, in Di royte velt (Kharkov) (August 1931);
A. Glants, in Tog (New York) (May 17,
1932); M. Viner, in Farn leninishn etap
in der literatur-kritik (For the Leninist stage in literary criticism)
(Kiev, 1932); Viner, in Shtern
(Minsk) (April-May 1932); Viner and A. Gurshteyn, in Problemen fun kritik (Issues in criticism) (Moscow, 1933); M.
Olgin, in Morgn-frayhayt (New York)
(February 11, 1933); N. Rubinshteyn, Dos
yidishe bukh in sovetn-farband in 1932 (The Yiddish book in the Soviet
Union in 1934) (Minsk, 1933), p. 91 (concerning Esther Vevyorke); Avrom
Abtshuk, Etyudn un materialn tsu der geshikhte fun der yidisher literatur
bavegung in FSRR (Studies and material for the history of the Yiddish
literature movement in the Soviet Union) (Kharkov, 1934), pp. 25, 27-29, 50-51,
66; B. Glozman, in Idisher kemfer
(October 4, 1940); D. Tsharni (Charney), A yortsendlik aza, 1914-1924,
memuarn (Such a decade, 1914-1924, memoirs) (New York, 1943); E. Almi, Momentn
fun a lebn (Moments in a life) (Buenos Aires, 1948), pp. 103-53; H.
Vaynroykh, Blut af der zun, yidn in sovet-farband (Blood on the sun, Jews in
the Soviet Union) (Brooklyn, 1950), p. 49; Al, Pomerants, in Dovid edelshtat gedenk-bukh (Dovid
Edelshtot memory book) (New York, 1952), pp. 535-40, 543, 546; Pomerants, in Literarishe bleter (January 3, 1936);
Pomerants, in Signal (New York)
(January 1936); Pomerants, in Forverts
(New York) (March 1, 1959); Ts. Kahan, in Tshenstokhov
(Częstochowa),
ed. Sh. D. Zinger (New York, 1958), with a bibliography prepared by Yefim
Yeshurin, pp. 121-24; N. Mayzil, Dos
yidishe shafn un der yidisher shrayber in sovetnfarband (Jewish creation
and the Yiddish writer in the Soviet Union) (New York, 1959), see index; A. A.
Roback. The Story of Jewish Literature
(New York, 1940).
Zaynvl Diamant
[Additional
information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon
fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New
York, 1986), col. 249.]
"Johannes R. Becher’s Maysim maskarad (Tales of masquerade) (Kharkov-Kiev, 1931), 45 pp." is rather Meysim-maskarad (Masquerade of the dead) = Маскарад мёртвых. Hebrew word "metim" is written in Yiddish pronunciation "meysim".
ReplyDeleteמײסימ-מאסקאראד
יאהאנעס בעכער; פונ דײטש - א. װעװיארקא
Correction noted with thanks.
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