Simon Frug ( rus, Семён Григо́рьевич Фру́г, p=sʲɪˈmʲɵn ɡrʲɪˈɡorʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈfruk, a=Syemyon Grigor'yevich Frug.ru.vorb.oga also known as Shimen Shmuel Frug;"Frug, Shimen Shmuel"

YIVO YIVO (, , short for ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. Estab ...

15 November 1860 – 22 September 1916) was a multi-lingual

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n and

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 ...

poet, lyricist and author. He was born in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

at the Jewish agricultural colony of Bobrovy-Kut, in the

Kherson Governorate Kherson Governorate, known until 1803 as Nikolayev Governorate, was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Kherson. It encompassed in area and had a population of 2,733,612 inhabitants. At t ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. During his youth he received religious training at his native village. At the age of 16 he began writing Russian poetry and was first published in 1880 in the Russophone Jewish magazine '' Razsvet'' ( ru) ("Dawn"). The following year he moved to

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

, where he became a prominent literary figure and began publishing regularly, albeit often under a pseudonym. His 1882 ''Legend of the Goblet'' won an important prize and, when translated into Yiddish by

Isaac Leib Peretz Isaac Leib Peretz (May 18, 1852 – April 3, 1915), also sometimes written Yitskhok Leybush Peretz (; ), was a Polish Jewish writer and playwright writing in Yiddish. Payson R. Stevens, Charles M. Levine, and Sol Steinmetz count him with Mendele ...

, the song reached an international audience. Shaken by the

pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...

s of 1881–1882, he joined the Hibbat Zion (Love of Zion) movement, and his poem ''Jewish Melody'' became an anthem to Russians seeking a Jewish state in what is now

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. In 1885 his first volume of poetry was released. His collected Yiddish poems were published in 1886 as ''Lider un Gedanken''. Additional volumes followed in 1890 and 1897. Some time after 1898 his fable ''Palma'' became available. His

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

ic songs were published in 1902. Frug wrote in Yiddish, Russian and Hebrew. For a period of time, followers of his work came to regard him as the national Jewish poet of Russia. He preferred folk themes and used light verses to express the suffering of people and the tragedy of Jewish homelessness. He died in

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

at the age of 56 after a brief illness, and 100,000 people attended his funeral march. Various cities in

have commemorated Frug by naming a street for him, including

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

Holon Holon (, ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located south of Tel Aviv. Holon is part of the Gush Dan, Gush Dan metropolitan area. In , it had a population of , making it the List of cities in Israel, tenth most populous city in Isra ...

Kfar Saba Kfar Saba ( ), officially Kfar Sava , is a List of Israeli cities, city in the Sharon plain, Sharon region, of the Central District (Israel), Central District of State of Israel, Israel. In 2019 it had a population of 110,456, making it the 16th-l ...

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan (, ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv, and is part of the Gush Dan, Gush Dan metropolitan area. It is home to a Diamond Exchange District (one of the world's major diamond exch ...

and

Netanya Netanya () () or Natanya (), is a city in the "Planet Bekasi" Central District (Israel), Setanyahu of Israel, Israel BAB ih, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa, between the Poleg stre ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frug, Simon 1860 births 1916 deaths People from Kherson Oblast People from Khersonsky Uyezd Jewish Ukrainian writers Russian male poets Jewish poets Hovevei Zion