Joseph Leftwich ( Zutphen September 28

1892 Events January–March * January 1 – Ellis Island begins accommodating immigrants to the United States. * February 1 - The historic Enterprise Bar and Grill was established in Rico, Colorado. * February 27 – Rudolf Diesel applies for ...

–

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

February 28

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

), born Joseph Lefkowitz, was a British critic and translator into English of Yiddish literature.Schwartz, Richard H. (2001). ''Judaism and Vegetarianism''. p. 175. Lantern Books.

Biography

Leftwich was born in the Netherlands 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 excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

''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 Euro ...

, and his 1957 biography of Israel Zangwill. He was one of the '

Whitechapel Boys The name "Whitechapel Boys" identifies a loosely-knit group of Anglo- Jewish writers and artists of the early 20th century. It is named after Whitechapel, which contained one of London's main Jewish settlements and from which many of its member ...

' 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 t ...

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 Stephen Winsten (1893–1991) was the name adopted by Samuel Weinstein, one of the 'Whitechapel Boys' group of young Jewish men and future writers in London's East End in the years before World War I (the others included Isaac Rosenberg, John Ro ...

) 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 and Mark Gertler. Leftwich was a vegetarian 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 *''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'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 British Jewish writers British vegetarianism activists English biographers English book editors English Jews English male non-fiction writers English male poets Hungarian–English translators Jewish poets Male biographers Whitechapel Boys