YANKEV-HIRSH (JACOB HERSH) FISHMAN

YANKEV-HIRSH (JACOB HERSH) FISHMAN (June 2, 1891-September 1, 1965)

            He was born in Shedlets (Siedlce), Poland.  He studied in religious elementary schools and yeshivas.  He began writing in his early youth.  In 1910 he published his first story in Dos shedletser vort (The Siedlce word), using the pen name Y. Ts. Lvovitsh.  He left for Warsaw and became a teacher of Hebrew and Yiddish, while publishing stories in Aleksander Farbo’s collection Likhtlekh (Candles) in 1913 and in Yukhvits’s collection Friling (Spring) in 1914.  With the outbreak of WWI, he returned to Siedlce and was active in Hazemir (The nightingale), and in 1916 he joined the Bund.  He was secretary of the trade unions for workers in the food industry.  Over the years 1930-1939, he worked in the administration of Ekspres (Express) in Warsaw.  Before the Nazis invaded Warsaw, he departed for Vilna, where he contributed work to Untervegns (Pathways).  From there he left via Russia for Japan, and one year later for Shanghai, China, where he lived for seven years and wrote for Naye velt (New world), organ of Jewish refugee writers.  In 1948 he came to Montreal, Canada, and in 1950 he made his way to New York.  He wrote for: Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal; and Tsukunft (Future) and Unzer tsayt (Our time) in New York; among others.  In book form: Zumerdike teg, dertseylungen (Summer days, stories) (Warsaw, 1938), 135 pp.; Farvoglte yidn, dertseylungen (Homeless Jews, stories) (Shanghai, 1948), 66 pp.; Heymishe vegn, dertseylungen (Familiar ways, stories) (New York, 1954), 166 pp.; Frier un shpeter (Earlier and later), stories (Buenos Aires: Yidbukh, 1957), 174 pp.  He died in New York.

Sources: Y. Z. Lev, in Unzer ekspres (Warsaw) (October 29, 1938); Moyshe Shimel, in Haynt (Warsaw) (January 18, 1939); A. Tsaytlin, in Unzer ekspres (February 3, 1939); Tsaytlin, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (February 8, 1957); Kh. Tiktiner, in Der moment (Warsaw) (February 17, 1939); Meylekh Ravitsh, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (November 22, 1948); Kh. M. Kayzerman, in Keneder odler (April 25, 1949); Kh. Sh. Kazdan, in Unzer tsayt (New York) (March 1954); B. Grobard, in Tsukunft (New York) (May-June 1954); A. Volf-Yaski, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (August 13, 1954); A. Glants-Leyeles, in Tog (New York) (January 22, 1955).

Leyb Vaserman