Jacob Glatstein
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Jacob Glatstein (, 20 August 1896 – 19 November 1971) was a Polish-born American poet and literary critic who wrote in the
Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...
language. His name is also spelled Yankev Glatshteyn or Jacob Glatshteyn.


Early life

Glatstein was born in
Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...
, Poland at a time when Jews made up 51% of the city's population. Although his family identified with the Jewish Enlightenment movement, he received a
traditional education Traditional education, also known as back-to-basics, conventional education or customary education, refers to long-established customs that society has traditionally used in schools. Some forms of education reform promote the adoption of progress ...
until the age of 16, supplemented by private education in secular subjects, and an introduction to modern Yiddish literature. By age 13, he was already writing and traveled to Warsaw to share his work with celebrated Yiddish writers such as I. L. Peretz. In 1914, due to increasing
antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
in Lublin, he immigrated to
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, where his uncle lived. In the same year, his first story was published in an American Yiddish weekly publication. He worked in
sweatshops A sweatshop or sweat factory is a cramped workplace with very poor and/or illegal working conditions, including little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting and ventilation, or uncomfortably or dangerously high or low temperat ...
while studying English. He started to study law at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
in 1918, where he met the young Yiddish poet N. B. Minkoff, but later dropped out. He worked briefly at teaching before switching to journalism. He married Netti Bush in 1919, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. His second marriage was to Fanny Mazel.


Career

In 1920, together with Aaron Glanz-Leyles (1889–1966) and Minkoff (1898–1958), Glatstein established the ''Inzikhist'' (Introspectivist) literary movement and founded the literary organ ''In zikh''. The ''Inzikhist'' credo rejected metered verse and declared that non-Jewish themes were a valid topic for Yiddish poetry. His books of poetry include ''Jacob Glatshteyn'' (1921) and ''A Jew from Lublin'' (1966). Glatstein's first book, titled under his own name, established him as the most daring and experimental of Yiddish poets in terms of form and style, as well as highly skillful in verbal manipulation of free verse poetry. He was also a regular contributor to the New York Yiddish daily '' Morgen-Zhurnal'' and the ''Yiddisher Kemfer'' in which he published a weekly column entitled "In Tokh Genumen" (The Heart of the Matter). He was also the director of Yiddish public relations for the
American Jewish Congress The American Jewish Congress (AJCongress) is an association of American Jews organized to defend Jewish interests in the US and internationally through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, legislation, and the courts. History The idea for a ...
. Glatstein was interested in exotic themes, and in poems that emphasized the sound of words. He traveled to Lublin in 1934 to attend his mother's funeral and this trip gave him insight into the growing possibility of war in Europe. After this trip, his writings returned to Jewish themes and he wrote pre-Holocaust works that eerily foreshadowed coming events. After the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, he became known for passionate poems written in response to the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
, but many of his poems also evoke golden memories and thoughts about eternity. Glatstein died on November 19, 1971, in New York City.


Awards

He won acclaim as an outstanding figure of mid-20th-century American
Yiddish literature Yiddish literature encompasses all those belles-lettres written in Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazic Jewry which is related to Middle High German. The history of Yiddish, with its roots in central Europe and locus for centuries in Eastern Eu ...
only later in life, winning the Louis Lamed Prize in 1940 for his works of prose, and again in 1956 for a volume of collected poems titled ''From All My Toil''. In 1966, he won the H. Leivick Yiddish literary award from the
Congress for Jewish Culture The Congress for Jewish Culture (also known as the World Congress for Jewish Culture or, in Yiddish, der Alveltlekher Yidisher Kultur-kongres) is a secular organization founded in 1948 to promote Yiddish culture throughout the world. Individuals a ...
.


Legacy

Glatstein was memorialized in Cynthia Ozick's short story ''Envy''.


Selected works

*''Jacob Glatshteyn,'' book of poems in Yiddish, 1921; *''Free Verse'' (Fraye jerzn, 1926); *''Kredos'' (Credos, New York, 1929) poems; *''Di'' ''purim-gvardye'' (The Purim Guard, 1931), a play; *''Yidishtaytshn'' (Yiddish meanings, 1937), poems; *''When Yash Set Out'' (Venn Yash Is Gefuhrn, 1938) resulted from his 1934 trip to Lublin; *''Homecoming at Twilight'' (Venn Yash Is Gekumen, 1940), another work reflecting his 1934 trip to Lublin; *''Emil un Karl'', a book published in 1940 and written for children. The book is about two boys in pre-World War II Vienna: Karl, a Christian from a Socialist family, and his friend Emil, a Jew. Glatstein wanted children to understand the changes taking place in Europe, where Vienna was no longer the same Vienna ("vienn is shoyn nisht di aygene vienn fun amol").; *''Gedenklider'' (Poems of Remembrance, 1943); *''Shtralndike yidn'' (Jubilant Jews, 1946), poems; *''The Joy of the Yiddish Word'' (Die Freid fun Yiddishen Vort, 1961); and *''A Jew of Lublin'' (A Yid fun Lublin, 1966) *''The Selected Poems of Jacob Glatstein'' (October House, 1973); translated from the Yiddish and with an Introduction by Ruth Whitman


References


Further reading

* * * *Selected Poems of Yankev Glatshteyn, translated, edited, and with an introduction by Richard J. Fein (Philadelphia, 1987)


External links

*Amos Goren
Kingdom of Jews"Eretz Acheret"
Magazine {{DEFAULTSORT:Glatstein, Jacob 1896 births 1971 deaths American people of Polish-Jewish descent Jewish American poets Yiddish-language poets 20th-century American poets Emigrants from Congress Poland to the United States