YISROEL FRENKEL

YISROEL FRENKEL (1896-1942)

            He was born in Moshtsisk (Mosciska), Galicia.  Until age fourteen he studied in religious elementary school and subsequently became a laborer.  For many years he worked with YIVO and was a collector of folklore.  He published stories and poetry in Lemberger togblat (Lemberg daily newspaper), Der morgn (The morning), and elsewhere.  In 1929 he became a member of the young Galician writers’ group.  In the journal Tsushteyer (Contribution), which this group brought out, he published a number of his poems.  Frenkel authored one-act plays and full dramas which were staged by amateur troupes in Galicia—among them Dos yoysef shpil (The Joseph play) of 1932-1939.  His placed poems and stories in: Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper), Arbeter tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper), and Foroys (Onward), among others, in Warsaw; and Vilner tog (Vilna day); among others.  Portions of his longer poem, “Velt in beynashmoshes” (The world at dusk) (16 pp. in print), were discovered after the war in Zalmen Reyzen’s archive.  He was killed in an Austrian death camp.

Sources: Dr. Mendl Naygreshl, in Tsukunft (New York) (December 1950); information from B. Kuper in Paris; Zalmen Reyzen’s archive, YIVO (New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks