YANKEV KRANTS (JACOB BEN WOLF KRANZ)

YANKEV KRANTS (JACOB BEN WOLF KRANZ) (ca. 1740-December 14, 1804)

            He was born in Zhetl (Zdzięcioł), near Vilna.  He was a preacher in many cities, but for the longest time in Dubne (Dubno), thereby becoming known as the “Dubner maged” (Dubno preacher).  He was a renowned speaker and recounter of fables.  Krants’s religious texts all appeared after his death, some of them in Yiddish: Kol yankev, di brihmte mesholim fun der dubner maged (The voice of Jacob, the notable fables of the Dubno preacher) (Königsberg, 1864), 24 pp.; Seyfer neymus yankev, di zise reyd fun horav r’ yankev, netak mes tsodek tsadikovits miminsk (The pleasantness of Jacob, the sweet speech of Rabbi Yankev, transcribed by Tsodek Tsadikovits of Minsk) (Warsaw, 1882), 50 pp.; Seyfer hamides (The book of manners) (Warsaw, 1887), 96 pp.; Mishle yankev (The tales of Jacob), “on the five books of the Torah [and five scrolls]…translated…into Yiddish” (Lublin, 1892), 62 pp.; Hagode shel peysekh mit ivri taytsh af reynim zhargon, und a taytshinim peyresh un mesholim fun dubner maged (The Passover Haggadah, with translation into pure zhargon [Yiddish] and an interpretive commentary and fables of the Dubno preacher) (Bobruisk, 1928); Ale mesholim fun dubner maged (All the tales of the Dubno preacher) (New York: Tashrak, 1925).  He died in Zamość.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, vol. 3; Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index; Y. Y. Trunk, in Di goldene keyt (Tel Aviv) 19 (1954); B. Y. Byalostotski, Di mesholim fun dubner magid un andere eseyen (The parable of the preacher of Dubno and other essays) (New York: CYCO, 1962).

Yekhezkl Lifshits