AVROM-VOLF YASNI

AVROM-VOLF YASNI (1893-February 5, 1968)

            He was a journalist, historian of the destruction of Lodz, and literary essayist, born in Zhelekhov (Żelichów), Poland.  His birth name was Tsiperman.  He moved to Lodz when young, and there he was a textile laborer and very active in the Bund.  In late 1939 he escaped into Soviet Bialystok, and he was later arrested in Stolin and sent to a Soviet camp.  After being freed, he returned to Poland in 1946 and in 1949 made his way to Israel where he became associated with proletarian Zionism.  He contributed articles to: Lodzher veker (Lodz alarm), Folks-tsaytung (People’s newspaper) in Warsaw, Letste nayes (Latest news) for which he edited the literary page and wrote reviews and treatises on writers and books.  In book form: Geshikhte fun der yidisher arbeter-bavegung in lodzh (History of the Jewish labor movement in Lodz) (Lodz, 1937), 426 pp.; Di oysrotung fun lofzher yidn (The extermination of Lodz Jewry) (Tel Aviv, 1950), 72 pp.; Di geshikhte fun di yidn in lodzh in di yorn fun der daytsher oysrotung (The history of the Jews in Lodz in the years of the German extermination), two volumes (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1961, 1966).  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Dr. M. Dvorzhetski (Mark Dvorzetsky), in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (September 15, 1967); N. Blumental, in Lebns-fragn (Tel Aviv) (November-December 1967); L. Vinograd, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (February 5, 1970); Khayim Leyb Fuks, Lodzh shel mayle, dos yidishe gaystike un derhoybene lodzh (Lodz on high, the Jewish spiritual and elevated Lodz) (Tel Aviv, 1972), pp. 163-65.

Ruvn Goldberg

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 295-96.