MEYER KRAVETS (KRAWETZ) (February 14, 1895[1]-July
25, 1962)
The
author of stories, he was born in Stolin, Minsk Province. He studied in religious primary school and
yeshiva. From 1911 he was living in the
United States. He engaged in a variety
of labors in a variety of places. In
1923 he settled in New York. He was
active in the leftist labor movement, though he later distanced himself from
it. From 1925 he published stories in: Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of
labor), Yunge kuznye (Young furrier),
Hamer (Hammer), Gerekhtikeyt (Justice), Kundes
(Prankster), Zayn (Being), and mostly
in Frayhayt (Freedom). He co-edited a couple of issues of Oyfgang (Arise) (January-February 1929;
closed down at the end of 1919) and the anthology Yunyon skver (Union Square) (New York, 1930). In book form: Af di vegn fun vint (On the roads of the wind) (New York:
Proletarishe mishpokhe, 1928), 224 pp.; A
nayer baginen (A new dawn) (New York: Progressive Dressmakers’ Branch 122,
Workmen’s Circle, 1957), 192 pp.; Der
letster kholem (The last dream) (New York: Zayn, 1960), 173 pp. “Kravets is a writer vagabond,” wrote Der
Lebediker, “with extraordinary subject matter, who writes poetically about
unfortunate people…. He introduces a new
theme with a new approach into our fiction.”
“He paints a variety of distinctive images [and]…various characters,”
noted Z. Yefroykin, “…but the motif is unitary: gloom, loneliness, passing
away.” In the English-language journal Medallion, he wrote under the pen name
M. K. Taylor. He died in New York.
Sources: M. Shtiker, in Der veker (New York) (July 21, 1928); Shmuel Niger, in Tog (New York) (December 8, 1928); A.
Pomerants, in Proletpen (Kiev, 1935),
p. 239; Z. Yefroykin, in Tog (June
1957); Y. Kohn, Baym rand fun onhoyb
(At the edge of the beginning) (New York, 1960), pp. 37-45; Yeshurin archive,
YIVO (New York).
Berl Cohen
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