ITSIK FEFER (ITZIK FEFFER) (September 23, 1900[1]-August
12, 1952)
He was
born in Shpola, Kiev region, Ukraine. His
father was a teacher and not religious.
He had a great influence on Itsik.
At age twelve he began working in a print shop. For a time in his youth he joined the
Bund. During the Soviet civil war, he volunteered
to join the Red Army. He directed
underground work in Kiev during the period of Denikin’s control, was thrown in
jail, and was barely saved from certain death.
From 1919 he was a member of the Communist Party, and he held a number
of Party posts. He began writing poetry
when quite young. He debuted in print in
1919 with a poem in the Kiev newspaper Komunistishe
fon (Communist banner). In
subsequent years, he published poetry, plays, polemics, and articles on writers
and literature in newspapers, magazines, almanacs, and the like: Yugnt (Youth), Naye tsayt (New times), Barg
aruf (Uphill), Folks-tsaytung (People’s
newspaper), Komunistishe fon, Shtern (Star), Ukraine (Ukraine), Proletarishe
fon (Proletarian banner), Shtrom
(Current), Farmest (Competition), Prolit (Proletarian literature), Di royte velt (The red world), Af barikadn (At the barricades), Sovetishe literatur (Soviet literature),
Almanakh fun yidishe sovetishe shrayber
(Almanac of Soviet Yiddish writers), and Shlakhtn
(Battles), among others, in Kiev-Kharkov; Oktyabr
(October) and Der shtern (The star),
among others, in Minsk; Nayerd (New
land), In iberboy (Under
reconstruction), Komyug (Communist
youth), Far der bine (Before the
stage), Sovetishe dikhtung (Soviet
poetry), Lomir zingen (Let’s sing), Heymland (Homeland), and Eynikeyt (Unity), among others, in
Moscow; Literarishe bleter (Literary
leaves) in Warsaw; and Frayhayt
(Freedom), Hamer (Hammer), Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture), and Af naye vegn (Along new roads), among
others, in New York. At one time or
another, he edited: Prolit, Farmest, and Sovetishe literatur. Many of
his works were republished in various newspapers and magazines throughout the
entire Yiddish world. Fefer was one of
the leaders of the Kiev writers’ group “Vidervuks” (New growth), from whose
publishing house appeared his first collection of poetry, Shpener (Chips) (Kiev, 1922): “which expresses,” wrote Zalmen
Reyzen, “the youthful, singing joy of the new generation of Soviet Yiddish
poets. In his subsequent development, he
and Izi Kharik stood at the head of this group of Yiddish poets in the Soviet
Union, who turned to the shtetl and introduced into Yiddish poetry a new folk
sensibility.” In 1926 he was a research
student in the literature section of the Yiddish department in the Ukrainian
Academy of Sciences. He gave the
inaugural address at the All-Ukrainian Conference of Jewish Proletarian Writers
(December 21, 1927) in Kharkov. He often
gave public speeches and lectures before thousands of laborers in large halls
and factories, and throughout virtually all the years of his writing career, he
was energetically involved at every literary and ideological front line. In name he was almost always linked to all
Jewish community and Yiddish literary events, earlier in Ukraine and later in
Moscow. In Yiddish literary centers of
the Soviet Union, there was no single battle or polemic in which he did not
participate. There was in the Soviet
Union virtually no single literary journal, literary collection, or almanac of
which he was not a member of the editorial board or co-editor. On a number of occasions, he translated from
modern Ukrainian poetry. He also adapted
Yankev Gordin’s Khasye di yesoyme (Khasye the orphan) for the stage, and it was performed in
1927 at the Kiev State Theater under the title Koymenkerer (Chimneysweep).
A number of his poems were sung and recited by artists outside Russia as
well. Fefer brought to Soviet Yiddish
literature the air of battle; he personified a new type of poet of the
revolution, a new type of artist of the folk masses. He sang of the collective farms and of Communist
youths from villages and towns. He wrote
for the masses, not just for the select, for grandfathers and grandmothers in
his “simple prose.” His books would include:
Shpener (Kiev: Vidervuks, 1922), 32
pp.; Vegn zikh un azoyne vi ikh
(About me and those like me), poetry (Kiev: Ukrainian State Publ., 1924), 93
pp.; Proste trit (Simple footsteps)
(Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1925), 64 pp.; Gezamlte
verk (Collected works), vol. 1 (1925); A
shayn tsu a shayn (Light to light), poetry (Kiev: Ukrainian State Publ.,
1925), 94 pp.; Gefunene funken (Discovered
sparks) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1928), 93 pp.; Elyes
toyt, poeme (Elye’s death, a poem) (Kharkov: Gezkult, 1928), 35 pp.; Geklibene verk (Selected works) (Kharkov:
State Publ., 1929), 371 pp.; Mayselekh in
ferzn (Stories in verse) (Minsk: Byelorussian State Publ., 1929), 32 pp.; Shlek (Nuisances), a revue in
four scenes, with Ezra Fininberg (Kharkov: State Publ., 1930), 142 pp.; Gevetn (Wagers) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1930),
239 pp.; Far groys un kleyn (For big
and small), children’s poetry (Minsk, 1930), 52 pp.; Bliendike mistn,
poeme (Manure in bloom, a poem) (Moscow: Central Publ., 1931), 11 pp.; Gruzye, poeme (Georgia, a poem) (Kharkov:
Literatur un kunst, 1931), 89 pp.; Plakatn
af bronze, plakatn,
pamfletn, satire, noveln, lozungen, faḳtn (Placards on bronze, placards,
pamphlets, satire, novellas, slogans, facts) (Moscow: Central Publ., 1931), 117
pp.; Dos taybele un andere mayselekh
(The little dove and other stories) (Moscow: Central Publ., 1931), 40 pp.; Di oyfgabes fun der yidisher proletarisher
literatur in rekonstruktivn peryod (The tasks of Yiddish proletarian
literature in the reconstruction period), stenographic report (Kiev, 1932), 55
pp.; Gezamlte verk (1918-1925) (Kharkov:
Literatur un kunst, 1932), 230 pp.; Plastn
(Layers) (Kharkov: State Publ., 1932), 182 pp., second edition (Kiev, 1934),
130 pp.; Di yidishe literatur in di
kapitalistishe lender (Yiddish literature in the capitalist countries) (Kharkov-Kiev:
State Publ. for National Minorities, USSR, 1933), 107 pp.; Geklibns (Selections), special for school (Moscow, 1933), 160 pp.; Tsvishn himl un ayz (Between sky and
ice), a poem (Kharkov, 1934), 32 pp.; Yatn
(Guys) (Kharkov, 1934), 231 pp.; Lider un
poemes, 1925-1928 (Poetry, 1925-1928) (Kharkov: Literatur un kunst, 1934),
299 pp.; Lenin in der kinstlerisher
literatur (Lenin in artistic literature), with M. Khashtshevatski (Kharkov-Kiev,
1934), 192 pp.; Lebn zol dos lebn
(Let life live) (Kharkov, 1934), 189 pp.; Lider
(Poems) (Moscow: Emes, 1935), 140 pp., with a preface by B. Olyevski; Mit hayntike oygn (With contemporary
eyes) (Kiev-Kharkov: Literatur un kunst, 1935), 182 pp.; Fayln af mayln (Arrows over miles) (Kiev: State Publ. for National
Minorities, USSR, 1935), 182 pp.; Kraft
(Force) (Kiev: State Publ., 1937), 274 pp., second edition (Kiev, 1941); Ba di gruzinishe yidn (With Georgian
Jews) (Kiev, 1938), 23 pp.; Dos goldene
fiksl, fantastishe poeme (The little golden fox, a fantasy poem) (Moscow:
Emes, 1938), 46 pp.; Geklibene verk
(Kiev, 1938), 282 pp.; Frages fun
sholem-aleykhems shafung (Issues drawn from the works of Sholem-Aleichem),
bulletin from the Sholem-Aleichem session of the division for social sciences
(Kiev: Academy of Sciences, Ukrainian S.S.R., 1939), 35 pp.; Groyse grenetsn, roman in ferzn (Great
borders, a novel in verse) (Kiev: State Literary Publ., 1939), 317 pp.; Birobidzhaner lider (Birobidzhan poems)
(Kiev: State Publ. for National Minorities, USSR, 1939), 22 pp.; Geklibns (Kiev: State Publ. for National
Minorities, USSR, 1940), 196 pp.; Vunderland
(Wonderland) (Kiev: Kiev: State Publ. for National Minorities, USSR, 1940), 260
pp.; Tsen mayselekh (Ten stories)
(Kiev, 1940); In a mazldike sho (Good
luck!) (Kiev: Kiev: State Publ. for National Minorities, USSR, 1941), 182 pp.; Milkhome-balades (War ballads) (Moscow:
Emes, 1943), 63 pp.; Roytarmeyish
(Like the Red Army) (New York: IKUF, 1943), 125 pp.; Shotns fun varshever geto (Shadows of the Warsaw Ghetto) (New York:
IKUF, 1945), 76 pp., second edition (1963); Shayn
un opshayn (Light and reflection) (Moscow: Emes, 1946), 215 pp.; Afsnay, lider (Renewal, poems) (Moscow:
Emes, 1948), 243 pp.; Lider, balades,
poemes, oysderveylts (Poems and ballads, selected) (Moscow: Sovetski
pisatel, 1967), 436 pp. In 1939 he received
the Order of Honor, and in 1941 the Order of Lenin. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, he
served as secretary of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in Moscow. In June 1943, together with Shloyme Mikhoels,
he traveled around giving talks in England, Canada, Mexico, and the United
States to mobilize Jewish public opinion on behalf of the Soviet Union in its
fight against fascism. In the Polo
Grounds in New York, he spoke before several tens of thousands of people about
German crimes against the Jewish people.
He lived, 1946-1947, mostly in Moscow, where he was active in the
community and as a co-editor of the newspaper Eynikeyt and the journal Heymland. At that time, the Moscow theater staged his
new play Di zun fargeyt nisht (The
sun doesn’t set). In late 1948 at the
time of the liquidation of Yiddish culture in the Soviet Union, he and Dovid
Hofshteyn, Perets Markish, and Dovid Bergelson, among others, were arrested and
tortured for four years in the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow, and he was then shot
by the N.K.V.D. [Soviet secret police] on August 12, 1952. In 1957 a volume of his poetry was published
in Russian in Moscow. Fefer’s work was
also represented in Shimshon Meltsar’s anthology Al naharot (By the rivers) (Jerusalem, 1955/1956) and other Hebrew
publications, in Shmuel Rozhanski’s Mustern
fun der yidisher literatur (Specimens of Yiddish literature) (Buenos Aires),
the anthology A shpigl af a shteyn, antologye, poezye un proze fun tsvelf
farshnitene yidishe shraybers in ratn-farband (A mirror
on a star, anthology, poetry and prose from twelve murdered Jewish writers in
the Soviet Union) (Tel Aviv, 1964), and also in the journal Sovetish heymland (Soviet homeland) (Moscow)
2 (1962). “There have emerged poets in the
Soviet Union,” wrote Shmuel Niger, “for whom the revolution is not an upheaval
or a break, but the natural air in which they were raised and grew up. Poets have appeared who, if the “Internationale”
is not much of a lullaby, it was already the march that accompanied their first
steps as toddlers; the Red Army, the Civil War, all the forms and activities of
Communism were not topics for them, not objects to celebrate in song, but a
part of their lives, their lives themselves.”
“In Yiddish poetry,” noted Yankev Glatshteyn, “no one with such great
talents has so thoroughly undressed a man naked and given away his last shirt
to the country as has Fefer…. Itzik
Fefer emerges in Soviet poetry as a young wonder with his full and lively
mastery and with his pioneering and vehement reconstruction of the moderating
Yiddish word. In truth, his abilities
were tremendous, but very often he, more often than other Soviet poets,
dishonored his own talents with vulgar proclamations, because he assumed the
mission of the pious caregiver of the line and of the cruelest interveners
against the opposition…. He was highly
gifted with a verse-breath and verse-zest which was a remarkable phenomenon in
Yiddish poetry that, thanks to Fefer, starting to look toward a new continent
conquered by Yiddish. No one made
Yiddish so convincingly Soviet as did Fefer.
No one knew the contours of a new, broken down Jew so linguistically and
musically substantial, as were Fefer’s poetry.
The new Jewish Soviet personality, with its colossal and super-powerful
capacity for adjustment, was nowhere so marked as in Fefer’s elastic-verbal
poems through his thoroughly zigzag periods.
Fefer was the Soviet Yiddish poet par excellence, because he dissolved in
his own chapter with which he triumphantly opened his poem.”
Mikhoels,
Paul Robeson, Fefer
Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Ezra Korman, Brenendike
brikn (Burning bridges) (Berlin, 1923); A. Finkl, in Shtern (Minsk) 1 (May 1925); A. Vevyorke, in Oktyabr (October) anthology (Moscow, 1925); Vevyorke, Der stil fun der proletarisher literatur
(The style of Proletarian literature) (Kharkov, 1932); Vevyorke, in Farmest (Kharkov) (November 1934); M.
Litvakov, In umru (In anxiety), vol. 2 (Moscow, 1926); Y
Nusinov, in Di royte velt (Khakov) 9
(24) (September 1926) and 5 (1930); Nusinov, in Yidn in fssr (Jews in the USSR) (Moscow, 1935); Nusinov, in Heymland (Moscow) 1 (1947); Shmuel
Niger, in Tsukunft (New York)
(January 1927; February 1930; October 1938); Niger, in Tog (New York) (May 5, 1935); Niger, Yidishe shrayber in sovet-rusland
(Yiddish writers in Soviet Russia) (New York, 1958); Sh. Epshteyn, in Di royte velt (March 1930); A. Holdes,
in Di royte velt (November-December
1930); Y. Bronshteyn, in Atake, almanakh
fun roytarmeyishn landshuts-literatur (Attack, almanac of the Red Army’s
national defense literature) (Moscow-Kharkov-Minsk, 1931); Bronshteyn, in Shtern (Minsk) (October 1934; May-June
1935); M. Khashtshevatski, in Di royte
velt (August 1931); Kh. Dunets, in In
shlakhtn (Moscow-Kharkov-Minsk) (1931); Y. Dobrushin, In iberboy, literarish-kritishe artiklen (Under reconstruction, literary-critical articles) (Moscow,
1932); Dobrushin, in Shtern (July
1933); Dobrushin, Sovetishe dikhtung
(Soviet poetry) (Moscow, 1935); Dobrushin, in Almanakh fun yidishn folks ordn (Almanac of the Jewish people’s
order) (New York, 1947); 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); Itsik fefer (Itzik Fefer), a
bio-bibliography (Kiev, 1936), 14 pp.; Sh. Shkarovski, in Kritik (Kiev) (1938); N. Mayzil, Doyres
un tkufes in der yidisher literatur, bletlekh tsu der geshikhte un tsu der
kharakteristik fun der yidisher literatur (Generations and eras in Yiddish literature,
on the history and the character of Yiddish literature) (New York, 1942);
Mayzil, in Morgn-frayhayt (New York)
(July 22, 1943); Mayzil, Dos
yidishe shafn un der yidisher shrayber in sovetn-farband (Jewish creation
and the Jewish writer in the Soviet Union) (New York, 1959); Mayzil, Tsurikblikn un perspektivn
(Retrospectives and perspectives) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1962), see index; B.
Ts. Goldberg, in Tog (July 15, 1943);
Goldberg, in Naye prese (Paris) (May
28, 1946); Goldberg, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal
(New York) (June 26, 1960; July 31, 1960; August 16, 1962; December 24, 1962);
H. Leivick, in Tog (July 25, 1943);
Y. Y. Sigal, in Keneder odler
(Montreal) (September 6, 1943); Dovid Pinski, in Morgn zhurnal (New York) (September 19, 1943); M. Boraysho, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (October 1,
1943); Meylekh Ravitsh, in Keneder odler
(May 1, 1944); Ravitsh, in Zamlbikher
(New York) 8 (1952); Kh. Nadel, in Eynikeyt
(Moscow) (March 20, 1947); Elye Falkovitsh, ed., Mikhoels, 1890-1948 ([Shloyme] Mikhoels, 1890-1948) (Moscow: Emes,
1948); Shmerke Katsherginski, Tsvishn hamer un serp (Between hammer and
sickle) (Paris, 1949); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Zamlbikher 8 (1952); Glatshteyn, In tokh genumen (In essence), vols. 1 and 2 (Buenos Aires, 1960);
Froym Oyerbakh, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal
(November 28, 1955); M. Kats, in Yidishe
shriftn (Warsaw) (July 1957); Kats, in Zamlungen
(New York) (winter 1957); Y. Yanasovitsh, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (June 25, 1958); Yanasovitsh, Mit yidishe shrayber in rusland (With
Yiddish writers in Russia) (Buenos Aires, 1959); Shloyme Bikl, Shrayber fun mayn dor (Writers of my
generation), vol. 1 (New York, 1958), vol. 2 (Tel Aviv, 1965); B. Mark, in Yidishe shriftn (November 1960); Chone
Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim
babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union,
1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index; Yefim Yeshurin, Fefer-biblyografye (Fefer bibliography) (New York, 1962); Biblyografye fun yidishe bikher vegn khurbn
un gvure (Bibliography of Yiddish books concerning the Holocaust and
heroism) (New York: Yad Vashem and YIVO, 1962), see index; Avrom Sutzkever, in Di goldene keyt (Tel Aviv) 43 (1962); A.
Pomerants, Di sovetishe haruge malkhes,
tsu zeyer 10-tn yortsayt, vegn dem
tragishn goyrl fun di yidishe shraybers un der yidisher literatur in sovetnland
(The [Jewish writers] murdered by the Soviet government, on their tenth
anniversary of their deaths, concerning the tragic fate of the Yiddish writers
and Yiddish literature in the Soviet Union) (Buenos Aires: YIVO, 1962), pp.
188-204, 988-99; H. Remenik, in Sovetish
heymland (Moscow) 2 (1963); Remenik, in Yidishe
kultur (New York) (February 21, 1964); M. Basok, Mishirat yidish (From Yiddish poetry) (Tel Aviv, 1962/1963); A shpigl af a shteyn, antologye, poezye un proze fun tsvelf
farshnitene yidishe shraybers in ratn-farband (A mirror
on a star, anthology, poetry and prose from twelve murdered Jewish writers in
the Soviet Union) (Tel Aviv, 1964).
Benyomen Elis
[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers
(Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 450; and
Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe
shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the
Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for
Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), pp. 295-98.]
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