Blum, Eliezer
BLUM, ELIEZER
BLUM, ELIEZER (pseudonym B. Alkvit ; 1896–1963), Yiddish poet and short story writer. After living in various European cities, Blum went to New York in 1914. In 1920 he joined the introspective movement launched by the poets J. Glatstein, A. *Glanz-Leyeles and N.B. Minkoff, and coedited its organ In-Zikh. He worked in a factory and was later associated with the Yiddish daily Jewish Morning Journal, in which he published lyrics, mostly in blank verse. His collection of short stories Oyfn Veg tsum Peretz Skver (1958; Revolt of the Apprentices and Other Stories, 1969), in common with his lyrics, combines realism and mysticism, an astonishing integration of the people and landscapes of his native Chelm and those of New York. The title story is itself the mystical contemplation of how a small square, bearing the name of Peretz, has somehow strayed into tumultuous New York. His collected poetry was published posthumously.
bibliography:
lnyl, s.v.; J. Glatstein, In Tokh Genumen (1956), 443–7; A. Glanz-Leyeles, Velt un Vort (1958), 162–5.
[Melech Ravitch]