Vaserman, Yankev
1880–1942
He was born in Plotsk (Płock), Poland. He wandered far and wide through Western Europe, the United States, and India. He was an active Communist and a teacher of English.
Aside from articles in various Yiddish newspapers, he edited (together with Alter Kacyzne) Glokn, Dokumentn fun Kunst and Gedank in der Nayer Velt-Vendung (Bells, Documents on Art and Thought in the New World Message), vol. 1 (Warsaw, 1921), and by himself edited and published the journal Arbeter-Kultur un Kunst (Workers’ Art and Culture)—only one issue appeared (Warsaw, December 1922).
In book form he published: Dos Teater un der Sotsyalizm (Theater and Socialism) (Warsaw, 1921), 180 pp., an attempt to treat theatrical issues from a historical materialist point of view.
He was in Bialystok, 1940-1941, under Soviet occupation. Disappointed, he renounced acceptance of Soviet citizenship. He was killed in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation.
Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater (Lexicon of the Yiddish Theater), vol. 1; Yidishe Shriftn (Lodz) (1946), section on commemoration of the dead.