YANKEV PENTEL

YANKEV PENTEL (b. December 25, 1886)

            He was born in a town near Bobruisk, Byelorussia.  He was active in the revolutionary movement.  In 1907 he immigrated to the United States and became a sweatshop worker, a painter, and a retailer.  From the late 1920s he was well known as a painter, sculpture, and poet.  He was very active in Workmen’s Circle, mainly in the realm of schools.  He published poetry in: Kinder-tsaytung (Children’s newspaper), Kinder zhurnal (Children’s magazine), and Morgn-frayhayt (Morning freedom), among others, in New York.  In 1928 he visited the Soviet Union and from his trip published reportage pieces in the New York press.  He was the author of Hamer-klangen, lider (The sounds of a hammer, poetry) (New York: Atlantik, 1939), 286 pp.  He was also a draftsman and sculpture.

Khayim Leyb Fuks