BER SHNAPER

BER SHNAPER (1906-1939)[1]

            He was a poet, born in Lemberg.  He came from a poor family and studied over the years 1926-1930 in the Vienna Hebrew teachers’ seminary.  In 1932 he moved from Lemberg to Warsaw.  He wrote poetry for: Yidish (Yiddish) in Vienna (1928), Vokhnshrift far literatur (Weekly writing for literature), Foroys (Arise) in Warsaw, and Tsushteyer (Contribution) in Lemberg, among others.  Shnaper’s poems in Sovetishe literatur (Soviet literature) 1 (1940) and Sovetish (Soviet) 11 (1940) were either submitted earlier or the date of his death is incorrect.  His work also appeared in: Yitskhok Paner and Leyzer Frenkel, Naye yidishe dikhtung (Modern Yiddish poetry) (Iași: Jewish cultural circle in Romania, 1947); Binem Heler, Dos lid iz geblibn, lider fun yidishe dikhter in poyln, umgekumene beys der hitlerisher okupatsye, antologye (The poem remains, poems by Jewish poets in Poland, murdered during the Hitler occupation, anthology) (Warsaw, 1951); and Hubert Witt, Der Fiedler vom Getto: Jiddische Dichtung aus Polen (The fiddler of the ghetto, Yiddish poetry from Poland) (Leipzig, 1966).  His books of poetry include: Opshoym (Dregs) (Vienna: Kultur-farayn, 1927), 31 pp.; Mayn shtot un andere lider (My city and other poems) (Lemberg: Tsushteyer, 1932), 61 pp.; Mayse in lid (A story in poetry) (Warsaw, 1934), 94 pp.; Bloe verter )Blue words) (Warsaw: Hutner, 1937), 141 pp.

Sources: Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 1 (Montreal, 1945); Y. Bernshteyn, in Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) 3 (1938); Yitskhok Bashevis, in Tsukunft (New York) (August 1943); M. Valdman, in Tsukunft 2 (1949); Mendl Naygreshl, in Tsukunft (1950); Ber Mark, Umgekumene shrayber fun di getos un lagern (Murdered writers from the ghettos and camps) (Warsaw, 1954), p. 205; Rokhl Oyerbakh, in Ilustrirte literarishe bleter (Buenos Aires) (September-October 1957); Yankev Botoshanski, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (December 31, 1957); A. Slutski, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (January 2, 1970); Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Berl Kagan

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[1] Meylekh Ravitsh give a birthdate of 1903.  According to Shiye Shlayen-Shiloni, he died in or near Lemberg.