YISROEL MAKRANSKI

YISROEL MAKRANSKI (1881-March 14, 1954)

            He was born in Pruzhane (Pruzhany), Byelorussia.  He moved to London in the late nineteenth century, studied English there, and became knowledgeable of English literature.  In the early twentieth century, he emigrated to the United States, stood close to the Zionist circles in New York, and wrote articles for Yudishe gazetten (Jewish gazette) and other Yiddish, Hebrew, and Anglophone Jewish publications in the States.  He arrived in Argentina in 1909, traveled around the Jewish colonies, and in a series of articles in Yudishe gazetten he described (using the pen name “Bund”) his impressions.  He stayed on in Argentina.  Over the years 1910-1915, he co-edited (with Y. Sh. Lyakhovitski and Ts. Shkolnik) the weekly newspaper Der idisher soykher (The Jewish businessman)—fifty-seven issues appeared in Buenos Aires.  In 1920 he was editor of Kolonist-kooperator (Colonist, cooperative), “monthly journal for cooperative doctrine, colonization, culture, literature, community, and information” (published from April 1917 in Dominguez).  He wrote articles for the Zionist publication Yudishe hofnung (Jewish hope) in Buenos Aires and for virtually all Argentinian Yiddish and English newspapers and magazines.  He also mastered the Spanish language and published in Spanish and Spanish-language Jewish publications.  He wrote articles on Argentinian Jewish colonization for the Hebrew-language Sefer argentina (Argentina volume), edited by Mordjai Maidanik in Buenos Aires (1954), and in Der amerikaner (The American) in New York; as well as elsewhere.  For a time he was a close contributor to the daily newspaper Di prese (The press) and to Argentiner lebn (Argentinian life) in Buenos Aires.  In his last years he lived alone and forlorn.  He died in the Jewish hospital in Buenos Aires.

Sources: Sh. Rozhanski, Dos yidishe gedrukte vort in argentina (The published Yiddish word in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1941), p. 185; Volf Bresler, Antologye fun der yidisher literatur in argentine (Anthology of Jewish literature in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1944), pp. 933, 937; P. Kats, Geklibene shriftn (Selected works), vol. 7 (Buenos Aires, 1947), pp. 31-33; Y. Botoshanski, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (December 8, 1954); Botoshanski, in Algemeyne entsiklopedye (General encyclopedia), “Yidn 5” (New York, 1957), p. 384; M. Bursuk, in Afn shvel (Mexico City-New York) (January-February 1958); Pinkes pruzhane (Records of Pruzhane) (Buenos Aires, 1958), see index; obituary notices in the Argentinian Yiddish press.

Zaynvl Diamant