YEKHEZKL
FREYLIKH (CHARLES A. FREILICH) (August 11, 1905-September 23, 1955)
He was
born in Ostrov (Ostrów), Lomzhe district, Poland. He studied in religious elementary school and
yeshiva. From Poland he moved to
Argentina. He graduated from the Jewish
teachers’ seminary and New York City College, and received the degree of
“bachelor of social science.” He
attended Syracuse University, and he received an M. A. degree from New York
University. He worked as a teacher in
the Workmen’s Circle and Sholem-Aleichem schools. He was a member of the central committee of “Aḥdut Avoda-Poale-Tsiyon
(Unity of labor and Labor Zionism), a member of the Zionism Council, and the
Education Commission. He began writing
in the 1930s. In 1939 he debuted in
print with an essay on Sholem Asch’s Der
man fun natseres (The man from Nazareth) in
Chicago’s Yidisher kuryer (Jewish
courier)—he later published essays and stories over the course of several years
in this same serial. He also contributed
work to: Tsukunft (Future) and Tog (Day) in New York; Kiem (Existence) in Paris; Di goldene keyt (The golden chain) in
Tel Aviv; and the English-language journal Opinion;
among others. Over the years 1949-1953,
he served as literary editor of Undzer
veg (Our way) in New York (using the pen name Y. Gil). In book form: Viderklangen, dertseylungen (Echoes, stories) (New York, 1948), 319
pp.; Yoysef opatoshus shafungs-veg
(Yoysef Opatoshu’s creative approach) (Toronto: Gershon Pomerants essay
library, 1951), 164 pp.; Doyres,
dertseylungen (Generations, stories) (Buenos Aires, 1955), 308 pp. In Hebrew: Metsada verom (Masada and Rome), a historical novel, translated
from a posthumous manuscript by M. Aram (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1962), 83 pp.
“The influence of Opatoshu on Freylikh was not
accidental,” noted Shloyme Bikl, “for there was without a doubt a certain
creative kinship of spirit between the stormy literary strider, the teacher [rebbe] Yoysef Opatoshu, and the quiet
and restless stepper [talmid], the
pupil Yekhezkl Freylikh. As was true of
Opatoshu, so too Freylikh possessed his own capacity in the ancient religious
texts, and also a passion for literary ‘ex-libris’ motives, namely he was happy
to weave his narratives around figures whose design was to be found somewhere
in a story of the distant past. As was
true of Opatoshu, so too Freylikh had a subtle sense of history, and the images
and figures of spiritual heroism in Jewish history attracted and captivated
him. And there was somewhere in Freylikh,
as there was in his teacher Opatoshu, the chief endowment of an artistic,
picturesque quality lying as it were in the shape of the spiritual side of his
heroes.”
Sources: Shmuel Niger, in Tog (New York) (May 16, 1948; September 16, 1952); Avrom Reyzen, in
Di feder (New York) (1949; 1951-1952);
Dr. A. Mukdoni, in Morgn-zhurnal (New
York) (January 16, 1949); A. Glants-Leyeles, in Undzer veg (New York) (June 1951); Y. Berliner, in Der veg (Mexico City) (March 3, 1956);
Shloyme Bikl, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal
(new York) (September 16, 1956); Bikl, Shrayber
fun may dor (Writers of my generation), vol. 2 (Tel Aviv, 1965); Sh. D. Zinger,
Dikhter un prozaiker, eseyen vegn
shrayber un bikher (Poets and prose writers, essays on writers and books)
(New York, 1959), pp. 325-31; Zinger, in Undzer
veg (December 1962; January 1963; September 1965).
Leyb Vaserman
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