YITSKHOK SHMULEVITSH

YITSKHOK SHMULEVITSH (b. March 14, 1911)

            He was a journalist, born in Kelts (Kielce), Poland.  He attended religious elementary school and public school.  At age twelve he worked as a boot-stitcher and at the same time studied on his own.  At nineteen he joined the Bund.  He lived for a short time in Lodz.  In late 1939 he fled to the Soviet Union, and from there he was sent to Uzbekistan.  He returned to Lodz in 1945 and the next year left for Paris; in 1954 he moved to New York.  He began writing reportage pieces for Naye folkstsaytung (New people newspaper) in Warsaw and articles for Kyeltser lebn (Kielce life), later for Dos naye lebn (The new life) in Lodz-Warsaw, Unzer shtime (Our voice) in Paris, and Gerekhtigkeyt (Justice) in New York.  From 1955 he was regular contributor to New York’s Forverts (Forward) for which he wrote correspondence pieces from Poland as early as 1937.  He mostly published articles there about remembrance volumes, experiences of survivors of the European Holocaust, and the lives of those recent arrivals in the United States.  Among his pen names: Y. Khaimson, Y. Shmuel, A. Shoyel, Y. Zak, A. Kyeltshinski, Sh. Esterman, Sh. Malkes, Sh. Krakovski, and A. Bender (only in Letste nayes [Latest news] in Tel Aviv).

Berl Cohen