Vaysman, Yankev-Elyohu
May 1, 1904–
He was born in Zhurin (Zurin), Podolia district, Ukraine. After 1913, when his father departed for the United States, he was raised by his grandfather in Miastovka. He studied in religious elementary school, graduating from a “Bet-sefer amami” (Jewish public school).
In 1921 he moved to the United States, for a time studied in Trenton, New Jersey, later settling in New York.
He debuted in print in 1926 with a translation of a poem by S. Yesenin in Kamf (Struggle) in Canada, and from that point in time on he contributed poetry and articles in many different periodical publications, principal among them: Inzikh (Introspective), Kern (Turn), and Epokhe (Epoch)—all in New York.
He edited: Inzikh (1934-1936), for three months he was part of a rotating editorial board with B. Alkvit, Yankev Glatshteyn, and A. Leyeles; Epokhe, a monthly in New York (1943-1947), with L. Faynberg.
His books include: Yung-Groz (Young Grass), poems (New York, 1928), 62 pp.; and Paraleln (Parallels), poems (New York, 1931), 62 pp.
Sources: A. Leyeles, in Inzikh (New York) (April 1940); Hemshekh Antologye fun Amerikaner-Yidisher Dikhtung, 1918-1943 (Continuation Anthology of American Yiddish Poetry, 1918-1943) (New York, 1945), pp. 245-69.