Moyshe-Leyb Halpern

Moyshe - Leyb Halpern (born 2 January 1886 in Zolochiv; † August 31, 1932 in New York City ) was a jiddischsprachiger poet of modernity. M. L. Halpern is considered one of the most outstanding and talented Yiddish poet. His work had a profound influence on the development of Yiddish poetry.

Biography

Born and raised in a traditional Jewish home in Zolochiv, Galicia, he came at the age of 12 years to Vienna to learn a craft profession. Here he began to write in German modern poems. After his return to his hometown in 1907, he moved to his poetry into Yiddish.

In order to avoid military service, emigrated Halpern 1908 to New York, where he joined the group Di Yunge ( די יונגע - The Boys ), an association of young poets and writers jiddischsprachiger emigrants belonged. This group was in opposition to the pathetic and class warfare rhetoric of the so-called Sweatshop Poets (about: Factory Hells poet ). According to publications in journals and anthologies Halpern brought out his first book of poetry in nyu york (in New York) in 1919. In the same year Halpern married. His son was born in 1923. Another book of poems, Di Golden Pave ( The Golden Peacock ), 1924 came out. In addition to his poetic work Halpern wrote for satirical magazines and the Frayhayt, a communist Yiddish newspaper. He died of a heart attack in 1932 in New York. Much of his unpublished poems and some drawings from his estate were in a two -volume edition in 1932 edited by Eliezer Greenberg (see links).

Bibliography

• Moyshe - Leyb Halpern: In Nyu- York. Book of poems, New York, 1919.
• Moyshe - Leyb Halpern: Di Goldene Pave. Book of poems, New York, 1924.
• Greenberg, Eliezer (ed.): Moyshe - Leyb Halpern, 2 volumes. New York: Moyshe - Leyb Halpern Committee, 1934