ARN RAPOPORT (AARON RAPPAPORT) (February 9,
1895-September 1, 1964)
A poet
and author of stories, he was born near Minsk.
He studied Jewish subject matter with itinerant schoolteachers and
Russian with tutors. In 1911 he made his
way to the United States, studied in an English-language school, and he also
trained to be a mechanic. He built a
number of his own patented, mechanical inventions. He fought in battles of WWI as a soldier in
the American army. He began publishing
his first poems in 1916 in Forverts
(Forward), and from that point on he published poetry and stories in: Avrom
Reyzen’s monthly Nay-yidish (New
Yiddish) of which he was one of the founders, Di feder (The pen), Getseltn
(Tents), Oyfkum (Arise), Tsukunft (Future), Frayhayt (Freedom), Hamer
(Hammer), Signal (Signal), Ikuf (IKUF [Jewish Cultural Association]),
and Di vokh (The week), among other
serials. In book form: Durkh fayervent (Through firewalls) (New
York: Nay-yidish, 1925), 93 pp.; Mayse-shap
(Story workshop) (New York, 1935), 159 pp.; Dvoyre
di nevie un barak ben avinoym (Deborah the prophetess and Barak son of
Avinoam), a dramatic poem (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1965), 142 pp. In a string of journals, he published several
series of poems: “Mashinen” (Machines), “Fabrikn” (Factories), and a long poem
entitled Sheydim (Devils), among
others. He left behind in manuscript,
among other items, a dramatic poem, “Mayster thomas” (Master Thomas), and the
plays: Gilgl mentsh (Metamorphosis of
man), Shuldik (Guilty), and A kholem in roym (A dream in Rome). Rapoport was a poet and depicter of workers’
lives and the sweatshop, of the big city, and of war. Of his war poetry, Shmuel Niger wrote that in
them “there is that simplicity and that quiet pain which fills the air of truly
great suffering.” In his sweatshop
poetry, he was different from others who wrote on this topic, in the words of
Ben-Tsien Goldberg, due to “his attempts to penetrate within people…not so much
in the economic or political circumstances.”
He died in New York.
Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook
of the Yiddish theater), vol. 6 (Mexico City, 1969); Ben-Tsien Goldberg, in Tog (New York) (October 17, 1964;
October 24, 1964); Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).
Berl Cohen
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