2/2 | Birthday of Issachar Ber Rybak
Today in Yiddishkayt… February 2 Birthday of Issachar Ber Rybak, Artist Issachar (Yissokher, or “Soukher”) Ber Rybak was born on February 2, 1897 in Elisavetgrad (today Кіровоград, Ukraine). He studied at the Art Academy of Kiev from 1911 to 1916. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Central Committee of the Kultur-lige in Kiev appointed Rybak to be a drawing teacher. In this capacity and inspired by S. An-sky’s ethnographic expeditions, he visited Jewish agricultural communities, memories of which appear in his later works such as the...
Read More2/1 | Birthday of Israel Zinberg
Today in Yiddishkayt… February 1 Birthday of Dr. Israel Zinberg, Historian Dr. Israel Zinberg, also known as Sergei Lazarevich or Yisroel “Srul” Tsinberg, was born on February 1, 1873 in a village near Lonovits, Volhyn (today Ланівці, Ukraine). He studied chemistry at the Karlsruhe Polytechnic Institute, received his doctorate at Basel University, and settled in Saint Petersburg in 1898. From 1899 to 1938, Zinberg worked as a chemist at Saint Petersburg’s Putilov (later Kirov) Steel Plant, where, from 1905, he was head of the laboratory. He published...
Read More1/30 | Birthday of Isaak Dunayevsky
Today in Yiddishkayt… January 30 Birthday of Isaak Dunayevsky, Composer The popular Soviet composer Isaak Dunayevsky was born January 30, 1900 in the shtetl of Lokhvitza (today Лохвиця, Ukraine) not far from the provincial capital of Poltava. He entered the Kharkov Musical Conservatory in 1910 and had a rigorous classical training, studying violin under Josef Achron (who was interested in fusing Jewish musical elements into his compositions), and took musical theory with the musicologist and composer Semyon Bogatyrev. After graduating, he worked as a violinist and conductor...
Read MoreLove Songs from a Neighboring Village
Our YidARTS Valentine's Day concert: masters of traditional music Alpert and Kytasty play love songs from the landscapes of Ukraine.
Read More12/20 | Birthday of Mani Leyb
Today in Yiddishkayt… December 20 Birthday of Mani Leyb, Yiddish poet Mani Leyb Brahinsky was born on this day, December 20, 1883 in Nizhyn, a shtetl in Kiev Gubernya (today Ніжин, Ukraine). From his earliest attempts at verse to his strikingly fresh poetry while leader of the American poetry group, di Yunge, the Young Ones. Brahinsky would drop his surname for his writing career, beginning as a translator of Russian and Ukrainian poetry for the Forward. Brahinsky a kamashnshteper—a shoe and boot-maker—was active in the revolutionary movement in Russia before emigrating to...
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