Berliner, Isaac
BERLINER, ISAAC
BERLINER, ISAAC (1899–1957), Mexican Yiddish poet. Born in Lodz, Berliner immigrated to Mexico in 1922 and earned a precarious livelihood as a peddler in the Mexican provinces. In 1927 he and two other Mexican Yiddish poets, Moses Glikovski (d. 1980) and Jacob *Glantz, published a volume of lyrics Dray Vegn ("Three Roads," Spanish transl. Tres Caminos, 1997). His second volume Shtot fun Palatsn (1936), illustrated by the Mexican painter Diego Rivera, appeared in English as City of Palaces (1996). His national elegies Ad Mosay ("Until When?" 1941) were followed by Shtil Zol Zayn ("Let There Be Silence," 1948) and Gezang fun Mentsh ("The Song of Man," 1954). In style, imagery, use of neologisms, and rich rhythms, Berliner was influenced by his Lodz fellow poet Moses *Broderzon, but Berliner was more socially conscious. In many lyrics he cries out vehemently against the abysmal poverty of the Mexicans around the Tepito Market in the heart of the "city of palaces."
bibliography:
lnyl, 1 (1956), 392–3; S. Kahan, Yidish-Meksikanish (1945), 211–23; idem, Meksikaner Viderklangen (1951), 106–201; idem, Meksikaner Refleksn (1954), 228–31.
[Melech Ravitch /
Alan Astro (2nd ed.)]