YITSKHOK KHOMSKI (ISAAC CHOMSKI)

YITSKHOK KHOMSKI (ISAAC CHOMSKI) (November 21, 1903-July 4, 1984)

            He was born in Warsaw, Poland.  Until age twelve he studied in religious primary school, later in M. Krinski’s high school (graduating in 1923).  He was active among Zionist youth and student circles in Warsaw.  He moved to France in 1924 to study medicine at the Sorbonne.  He received his medical degree in 1932.  He was active in Paris in the Jewish student association, in the Jewish artists’ association (serving as its secretary for a time), and the Federation of Jewish Societies, also in Yiddish theater, in the Club for Free Discussion, and the like.  He began writing poetry and stories in Polish in his high school newspaper Ognisko Myśli (Fireplace ideas) in Warsaw (1919).  In 1925 he switched to Yiddish and published in Parizer bleter (Parisian pages) articles on the life of Jewish students in France.  In 1926 he was one of the main contributors to Parizer haynt (Paris today), in which for many years he ran a daily column entitled “Parizer bildlekh” (Parisian images) and published a novel in installments, Di, velkhe men fargest nisht (Those who are not forgotten).  He was the correspondent on the Schwartzbard trial for the periodicals: Haynt (Today) and Nasz Przegląd (Our overview) in Warsaw; Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal; Idishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) in Buenos Aires; Lodzer tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper); and other provincial papers in Poland.  He authored the comedy Der onzetser (The failed one) and of a few timely dramatic sketches which were staged in the Yiddish theater in Poland.  When the Germans occupied France, he escaped from Paris, living for a time in Montpellier where he earned his second medical degree.  In June 1941 he led (with help from the Joint Distribution Committee) a party of over 100 Jewish children from concentration camps and, traveling through Spain and Portugal, he brought them to the United States.  There he studied further at New York University, and in 1943 earned yet another medical diploma.  Afterward he became a practicing doctor in America.  He contributed articles and travel descriptions to Forverts (Forward) and Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal) in New York and to such Anglophone Jewish periodicals as Contemporary Jewish Record in New York and Digest in Montreal, among others.  He was the official doctor of the Israeli Consulate in New York.  He died in New York.

Source: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928).

Khayim Leyb Fuks