Fink, Yankev-Yisroel
1894–October 26, 1955
He was born in Novograd-Seversk (Novhorod-Siverskyi), Ukraine. He received both a Jewish and general education. In 1918 he moved to Paris and graduated from the polytechnic. He was an engineer his entire [adult] life. He was active in Jewish community and cultural life. He was a member of the central committee of Poale-Tsiyon aḥdut (Labor Zionists United) in France, a member of the presidium of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Paris, and vice-chairman of Histadrut Haivrit (Hebrew Federation) and of the academy of the Yiddish book, among other positions.
He was a Yiddish and Hebrew writer, researcher, and essayist. He also wrote an excellent French and translated from English, Spanish, and Russian.
In the years of the Nazi occupation during WWII, he was active in the resistance movement and edited a French-language newspaper (1941-1944).
He contributed work to: Parizer Haynt (Paris Today) in 1932; Unzer Vort (Our Word) of which he was editor-in-chief in 1944-1945; Kiem (Existence); Unzer kIem (Our Existence) of which he was also co-editor; Shevivim (Sparks)—all in Paris; Hadoar (The Mail) in New York; the monthly for documentation Le Monde Juif: La Revue Du Centre De Documentation Juive Contemporaine (The Jewish World: Revue of the Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation) in Paris; and Metsuda (Citadel) in London.
In book form: Yahadut Tsarfat (French Jewry) (Paris, 1951), 176 pp.
He died in Paris.
Sources: Editorial, in Unzer Vort (Paris) (October 27, 1955); L. Domenkevitsh and Manes Shperber, in Unzer Vort (November 27, 1955); Y. Keshet, in Keneder Adler (Montreal) (November 28, 1955) in the Hebrew column.