YANKEV-YITSKHOK FRIDMAN

YANKEV-YITSKHOK FRIDMAN (1913-July 1965)

            He was born in Shidlovtse (Szydłowiec), Radom district, Poland.  Until age thirteen he studied in religious elementary school, and he then became a laborer.  He was active in the youth Bund “Tsukunft” (Future).  In 1936 he emigrated to France and until the Nazi occupation during WWII, he lived in Lyons.  For a time he was part of the underground resistance movement, before fleeing for Switzerland.  From 1945 until his death, he lived in Paris.  He debuted in print with poetry in Yugnt-veker (Youth alarm) in Warsaw (1933).  He took part in and won a prize in the YIVO contest for Yugnt-oytobyografyes (Youth autobiographies) in Vilna (1934).  From 1948 he published humorous sketches, satires, and feature pieces in Naye prese (New press) in Paris.  In book form: Noent tsum friling (Close to spring), poetry (Szydłowiec, 1935), 58 pp.; Azoy hot gezogt yankl-zhak, humoreskes (Thus spake Yankl-Jack, humorous sketches) (Paris: Oysnay, 1956), 156 pp.  He died in an automobile accident.

Sources: YIVO archives in New York; information from Yankl Zilberman in New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks