YOYNE KREPEL (JONAS KREPPEL) (December 25, 1874-July 21,
1940)
He was
born in Drobitsh (Drohobych), Galicia, the descendant of a Hassidic
family. He studied until age fourteen with
itinerant teachers. He mastered
typesetting and somewhere later opened his own print shop. He was an active Zionist and later a
prominent leader in Agudat Yisrael. He
participated as a delegate to the Czernowitz Language Conference in 1908. He lived in Cracow and Lemberg. In 1914, during the war, he fled to
Vienna. For many years he was a
political speaker at the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. After Hitler’s annexation of Austria, he was
imprisoned in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, where he perished shortly
before WWII. He began publishing and
editing newspapers in German with Jewish lettering—Drohobitsher
Zeitung (Drohobych newspaper) in 1896; and Jüdische
Volksstimme (Jewish people’s voice) in Cracow in 1899. He later helped establish publications in
Yiddish, such as Der yud (The Jew) in Cracow, the Hassidic
weekly Der emeser yud (The true
Jew), and the monthly Der shtrahl (The beam
[of light]), among others. After taking
over the Fisher publishing house (the publisher, Y. Fisher, was Krepel’s
father-in-law), he brought out the weekly newspaper Di
yudishe ilustrirte tsaytung (The Jewish illustrated newspaper)
in Cracow (1909-1914), with the humorous supplement Di
havdole (The separation [of Sabbath from weekdays]), and the
monthly Beys yisroel (House of
Israel). At the same time, Krepel
recorded his most important press achievement for Yiddish: the founding of the
first Yiddish-language daily newspaper in Cracow, Der
tog (The day) (December 1909-September 14, 1914, with a separate
supplement Oyneg shabes [Enjoyment
of the Sabbath]). From 1919 he was the
Viennese correspondent for New York’s Yidishes tageblat (Jewish
daily newspaper); therein he published, among other items, several long stories
(1922, 1924, 1925). In all the serials
he founded, he contributed with literary work.
In
book form: Tkhines (Women’s prayers) (Drohobych,
1896); Maks shpitskopf (Max
Spitzkopf), a series of detective stories (Cracow: Y. Fisher, 1908), 15 booklets;
Kayzer frants yozef (Kaiser
Franz Josef) (1908)—the latter two were published anonymously. Krepel published roughly one hundred short novels
in the Przemyśl publishing house of Simkhe Fraynd (1924-1927), 32
pp. each. Here we note the storybooks
that Zalmen Reyzen records: first series (1924) of historical stories: Der falsher meshiekh (The false
Messiah), Der poybst elkhonen (The
Pope Elḥanan), Eyn nakht kenig, historishe
ertseylung (King for one night, historical story), Di yudishe fohn fun prag, historishe ertseylung (The Jewish banner
of Prague, historical story), Di rebe
ayzik r’ yekels shul in kroko, a folks mayse (The synagogue of R. Yekel, son
Rebbe Ayzik, in Cracow, a folktale), Der
rama un der bishop (R. Moses Isserles and the bishop), Der shtadlen fun vien (The intercessor from Vienna), Der kodesh (The holy man), Di terken far di toyern fun vien (The
Turks at the gates of Vienna), Yude
hamaymen (Judah the believer), Der
neyder tsu fohren kin erets yisroel (The vow to travel to the land of
Israel), Al naares bovl (By the rivers
of Babylon), Rabi menashe ben yisroel
(Rabbi Menashe ben Yisrael), Dem sultans
laybartst, geshikhte fun rambam (The sultan’s personal physician, the story
of Rambam), Rivke abarbanel (Rebecca
Abarbenel), In di teg fun inkvizitsye
(In the days of the Inquisition), Shabes
raptum (Suddenly the Sabbath), Shprintse
vital iz mit freyd geshtorben
kdey tsu rateven ihr foter un andere yuden (Shprintse Vital died with joy to save her
father and other Jews), Di groyzame intrigue
(The savage intrigue), and Napoleon un
der yidisher rendar (Napoleon and the Jewish lessee); second series of
Hassidic tales and legends: Der sultan un
dovid hameylekh (The sultan and King David), Tkhies hameysim, oder r’ yankev ashkenazi (The resurrection of the
dead or R. Jacob Ashkenazi), Der l”v-nik
(One of the thirty-six good men), Der
beyzer r’ yoyel (The wicked R. Joel), Der
royber dobosh un r’ leyb pistiner (Doboszhe the thief and R. Leyb Pistiner), Gevolt brengen meshiekhn (Bring the Messiah!), Di familye ariel (The family Ariel), Der lulev (The palm branch), Erets
yisroel-erd, di geshikhte fun mayn fraynd shloyme, zayn liebe tsum heyligen
land, tragisher goyrl fun a zun funem tsezeyten un tseshpreyten yudishen folk
(The land of Israel, the story of my friend Solomon, his love of the Holy Land,
tragic fate of a son of the dispersed Jewish people), Bruder un shvester (Brother and sister), Dos yudishe harts (The Jewish heart), and Di meshumedet (The [female] apostate); third series, stories from
the world war: Di krankenshvester, an
emese ertseylung (The nurse, a true story), Shimshn hagiber (Samson the strong man), Fergrobener zilber-rubel (The buried silver ruble), Der shpyon, ertseylung fun di teg fun der milkhome
(The spy, a story from the days of the war), Der gaysel (The hostage), Kozaken
kumen (Cossacks are coming), Tsuzeyt
un tsushpreyt (Dispersed), Fun toyt
lebedig, ertsehlung fun di milkhome-teg,
mir kenen nisht begrayfen gots vinder un dokh zehen mir zey yeden tog
(Living from death, a story from the war days, we cannot comprehend God’s
wonder and yet we see it every day), and Der
gefangener (The prisoner); fourth series, stories of criminals: Der kamf mit di sheydim (The struggle
with demons), Der shvartser ferbrekher
(The black criminal), Der ekspres
(The express), Der fershtelter detektiv
(The disguised detective), and Der eydim
a merder (The son-in-law, a murderer).
In 1927 he published a second editions of these forty-six booklets with new
ones: Moyshe kolon, historishe ertselung fun der entdekund fun amerika
(Moses Columbus, a historical story of the discovery of America), Senkheribs sof (The end of Sennacherib),
Shulamis bas divri (Shelomit,
daughter of Divri), Di mesire (The
denunciation), Don fernando, ertselung
fun di teg fun der inkṿizitsye in shpanyen (Don Fernando, a story from the
days of the Spanish Inquisition), Der
royber-hoyptman (Main robber), Der
kantonist (The young boy pressed into military service for many years), Di goldene royze (The golden rose), R’ uri strelisker (R. Uri Strelisker), R’ nokhum bryansker un di grefn (R.
Nokhum of Brańsk and the countess), Di
ushpizin (The guests), Di kameye
(The amulet), Der bal-tshuve (The
penitent), Dos shtetil motele (The
town inn), Di goldene kugel (The
golden pudding), Di heldishe khane
(Heroic Hannah), Der folks-zenger
(The folksinger), Di geshenkte yohren
(The years given), Khane di shnayderke
(Hannah the tailor), Der aynvangerungs-komisar
un zayn muter (The commissar of immigration and his mother), A yudishe neshome (A Jewish soul), In a trinkender shif (In a sinking
ship), Baym barg sinay (At Mount
Sinai), Di tfilin (The phylacteries),
Di shpyonin (The spies), Der nikolayski soldat (The Nikolai
soldier), Mekimi meafar dal (He
raises the needy from the dust), Der
legyoner (The Legionnaire), Der
ferreter (The traitor), Dos
fertribene shtetil (The expelled town), Der
sibiryak (The Siberian), Der
regiment-artst (The regimental doctor), Der
kozak hanigzal (The robbed Cossack), Nokh
der shkhite (After the slaughter), Di
bkhoyre (The precedent), Der rusisher
komendant (The Russian commandant), and Avrom
ovinu un zayn mishpokhe (Our father Abraham and his family) (1928). Kepel’s main work in German was: Juden und Judentum von Heute (Jews and
Judaism today) (Zurich-Vienna, 1925), 891 pp., an encyclopedic handbook and
bibliography concerning contemporary Jewry.
He went on to publish books in German and several Hebrew
periodicals. Kepel’s story books,
according to Moyshe Shalit, “are entirely independent and innovative,…but the
greatest surprise…is Kepel’s Yiddish language….
The booklets [are] written in an exquisitely pleasant language.” “Thanks to both of his newspapers [Tog and Di yudishe ilustrirte tsaytung] and his tales of criminals,” wrote
Mendl Naygreshl, “Yoyne Krepel succeeded in creating a mass readership in
western Galicia and a literary atmosphere.
He helped to awaken Jewish Cracow, and he penetrated where the party
newspapers…had no access. He also
aroused the provinces.” He died
in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.
Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Gershom Bader, in Yidishes tageblat (New York) (March 20, 1920); Moyshe Shalit, in Di yidishe velt (Vilna) (March 1928);
Mendl Naygreshl, in Fun noentn over
(New York) 1 (1955), pp. 341-47; Mikhl Vaykhert, Zikhroynes (Memoirs), vol. 1 (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1960), pp.
197-98; Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).
Yekhezkl Lifshits
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