Joseph Leftwich (28 September 1892 – 28 February 1983), born Joseph Lefkowitz, was a British critic and translator into English of

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 ...

.Schwartz, Richard H. (2001). ''Judaism and Vegetarianism''. p. 175. Lantern Books.

Biography

Leftwich was born in the Netherlands. He is known particularly for his 1939

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

''The Golden Peacock'' of

Yiddish poetry 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 ...

, and his 1957 biography of

Israel Zangwill Israel Zangwill (21 January 18641 August 1926) was a British author at the forefront of Zionism during the 19th century, and was a close associate of Theodor Herzl. He later rejected the search for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and became the ...

. He was one of the '

Whitechapel Boys The Whitechapel Boys were a loosely-knit group of Anglo-Jewish writers and artists of the early 20th century. It is named after Whitechapel Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets ...

' group (the others being

John Rodker John Rodker (18 December 1894 – 6 October 1955) was an English writer, modernist poet, and publisher of modernist writers. Biography John Rodker was born on 18 December 1894 in Manchester, into a Jewish immigrant family. The family moved ...

Isaac Rosenberg Isaac Rosenberg (25 November 1890 – 1 April 1918) was an English poet and artist. His ''Poems from the Trenches'' are recognized as some of the most outstanding poetry written during the First World War. Early life Isaac Rosenberg was born ...

and Stephen Winsten) of aspiring young Jewish writers in London's East End, in the period roughly 1910–1914. He himself retrospectively coined the name, to include also the artists

David Bomberg David Garshen Bomberg (5 December 1890 – 19 August 1957) was a British painter, and one of the Whitechapel Boys. Bomberg was one of the most audacious of the exceptional generation of artists who studied at the Slade School of Art under Hen ...

and Mark Gertler. Leftwich was a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...

and an active patron of the Jewish Vegetarian Society. He wrote biographies of vegetarian writers for ''The Jewish Vegetarian'' and an introduction for the book ''The Tree of Life'', edited by Philip Pick, an anthology of essays on Judaism and vegetarianism. His daughter Joan married the American writer

Joseph McElroy Joseph Prince McElroy (born August 21, 1930) is an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He is noted for his long postmodern novels such as '' Women and Men''. Personal background McElroy was born on August 21, 1930, in Brookl ...

.from the McElroy biography in Vineta Colby (ed) ''World Authors 1975-1980''

Works

*''War'' (1915) *''What will happen to the Jews?'' (1936) *''Along the Years, Poems: 1911–1937'' (1937) *''The Golden Peacock: An anthology of Yiddish Poetry'' (1939) *''Yisroel: The First Jewish Omnibus'' (1933) *''The Tragedy of Anti-Semitism'' (1948) with

A. K. Chesterton Arthur Kenneth Chesterton (1 May 1899 – 16 August 1973) was a British journalist and political activist. From 1933 to 1938, he was a member of the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Disillusioned with Oswald Mosley, he left the BUF in ...

*''Israel Zangwill'' (1957) biography *''The Way We Think'' (2 volumes)'' (1969) editor *''Anthology of Modern Yiddish Literature'' (1974) *''A Distant Voice: An Autobiography of Samuel Lewin, translator'' *''Years at the Ending : Poems 1892–1982'' (1984) *''Soldier' song'': Translation of

Bálint Balassi Baron Bálint Balassi de Kékkő et Gyarmat (, ; 20 October 1554 – 30 May 1594) was a Hungarian Renaissance lyric poet. He wrote mostly in Hungarian,István Nemeskürty, Tibor KlaniczayA history of Hungarian literature Corvina, 1982, p. 64 ...

's poem "Egy katonaének" (Hungarian)

References

Bibliography

*''Joseph Leftwich at Eighty-Five: A Collective Evaluation'' (1978)

External links

*The personal papers of Joseph Leftwich are kept at the
Central Zionist Archives
in Jerusalem. The notation of the record group is A330.
Article on the Whitechapel BoysObituary
in JTA {{DEFAULTSORT:Leftwich, J 1892 births 1984 deaths 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English poets English vegetarianism activists Dutch emigrants to the United Kingdom English biographers English book editors Jewish English writers English male non-fiction writers English male poets Hungarian–English translators Jewish poets British male biographers Whitechapel Boys