LIPE KESTIN (August 15, 1889-October 19, 1939)
He was
feuilletonist and humorist, born in Orle (Orla), Grodno district. He studied in a yeshiva. For a short period of time, he worked as a
Hebrew teacher, before departing for Warsaw.
He was an active leader in the Jewish Folkspartey (People’s party). At the start of WWII, he fled from Warsaw and
was shot on October 19, 1929 in Lukeve (Łuków).[1] He began publishing jokes in Haynt (Today) and in 1911 a story in Unzer leben (Our life). During WWI he wrote for Varshever tageblat (Warsaw daily newspaper), and later he became a
contributor to Moment (Moment) and Varshever radyo (Warsaw radio). He also placed poetry, parodies, humorous
sketches, feature pieces, Talmudic legends in verse, and aphorisms in other
newspapers and periodicals in Poland.
Over the years 1911-1921, he published in holiday sheets and joke
flyers, as well as in the collections: Nisn
(Nisan), Sivn (Sivan), and Elul-tishre (Elul-Tishre) (1913); Goldene shtrahlen (Golden beams [of
light]) (1915); In shturm (In
turbulent times) (1917); Naye himlen
(New skies) (1921, and reprinted the same year in New York), 112 pp.; Nohnt un vayt (Near and far) (1921), 80
pp. He compiled with Khayim Goldberg the
anthology Der humoristisher deklamator, a
zamlung fun lider, parodyen, un epigramen (The humorous reciter, a
collection of poems, parodies, ad epigrams) (Warsaw: Lire, 1919), 128 pp.; Yudishe folks-vitsen (Popular Jewish jokes)
(Lodz: Lazar Kahan, 1918), 32 pp.; and the humorous Hagode shel emigranten (Haggadah of emigrants) (Warsaw, 1920). For a time he was the actual editor of the
periodical of the Folkspartey, Dos folk
(The people) (issues 37-86, 1918), and of Di
yidishe tribune (The Jewish tribune) (1922-April 1923). He served as literary editor, 1922-1925, of Di yudishe handverker-shtime (The voice
of the Jewish artisan). His pen names
included: A. Kestkind, Lipkes, and Yudeszon.
Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Zusman Segalovitsh, Tlomatske 13, fun farbrente nekhtn (13 Tłomackie St., of zealous nights) (Buenos Aires: Central Association of
Polish Jews in Argentina, 1946), p. 106; Yidishe
shriftn (Lodz) (1946); Yonas Turkov, Azoy iz es geven, hurbn varshe (That’s how it was, the destruction
of Warsaw) (Buenos Aires, 1948), p. 26; B. Mark, Umgekumene shrayber fun di
getos un lagern (Murdered writers from the ghettos and camps) (Warsaw,
1954), pp. 47-48; Avrom Zak, Geven a
yidish poyln, eseyen un dermonungen (There was a Jewish Poland, essays and
remembrances) (Buenos Aires, 1968), pp. 150-51; Itonut yehudit shehayta (Jewish press that was) (Tel Aviv, 1973),
see index.
Yekhezkl Lifshits
[1] According to Yonas Turkov, he died in Otvosk (Otwock);
according to Zusman Segalovitsh, it was Mezritsh (Międzyrzecz).
No comments:
Post a Comment