Friday, 29 June 2018

WILLIAM POKHOTSKI


WILLIAM POKHOTSKI (May 23, 1881-August 1, 1945)
            He was born in Tomsk, Siberia; his father, from Suwalk, was deported there for taking part in the Polish Uprising of 1863.  In 1896 he returned with his family to Suwalk.  In Poland William Pokhotski joined the revolutionary movement and became a member of the Bund.  He wrote revolutionary poems in Russian.  He was arrested in Suwalk and in Warsaw.  In 1905 he made his way to the United States and there contributed to the Jewish trade union and socialist movement.  His journalistic activities in Yiddish began in Tsaytgayst (Spirit of the times) in New York (1908) with articles on labor issues.  He also penned stories and feature pieces for a variety of periodicals, among them: Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor), Tsukunft (Future), and Vokhntsaytung (Weekly newspaper) in New York.  He published and edited Lustige bleter (Joyous pages) in New York.  From 1915 he was regular contributor to Morgn zhurnal (Morning journal) in New York (later, the labor editor).  He mainly wrote news and articles on industry problems and labor issues, from time to time also sketches and features, occasionally under the pen name Graf Pototski.  He Americanized his name to William Post.  He died in New York.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2; Tsukunft (New York) (September 1945); Hadoar (New York) (August 10, 1945); Moyshe Shtarkman, in Hadoar (May 23, 1949); Harry L. Schneiderman, in Jewish Book Annual V (1946-1947), p. 103.
Yankev Kahan


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