YITSKHOK KATSNELSON (A. D. MIRAL)

YITSKHOK KATSNELSON (A. D. MIRAL) (1890-1967)

            He was a journalist, born in Byelorussia. He debuted in print in 1912 with feature pieces in the newspaper Minsker shtime (Voice of Minsk), and he later edited Rovner shtime (Voice of Rovno). When WWI broke out, he was mobilized into the army and spent two years at the front. Over the years 1916-1918, he studied in the Moscow Commercial School. From 1918 he was a contributor to Varhayt (Truth) in Moscow, which later became Der emes (The truth). He served on the editorial board of Der emes, contributing articles, sketches, notes, and reportage pieces over the course of its entire existence (1918-1938). He also brought out a book on the Jewish colonies in the Crimea. During WWII he worked as a correspondent for the telegraphic agency TASS. Just as the newspaper Eynikeyt (Unity) began to appear in print, he returned to Moscow and became a regular contributor. In the 1950s and 1960s, he published articles in the foreign Yiddish press. In 1956 he became the Moscow correspondent for Warsaw’s Folks-shtime (Voice of the people), and his articles, sketches, and reportage pieces were an important source from which the Jewish world might be informed of what was happening on the Jewish street in the Soviet Union. His works include: In krimer step (On the Crimean steppe) (Moscow: Emes, 1933), 79 pp.; Dos blut ruft tsu nekome! (The blood cries out for revenge!), with Yitskhok Nusinov and Leyb Kvitko (Moscow: Emes, 1941), 114 pp., in which the victims described the fascist persecution in occupied Poland. He died in Moscow.

Source: Sovetish heymland (Moscow) 12 (1984).

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 477-78; 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), p. 323.