Friedman, Jacob
FRIEDMAN, JACOB
FRIEDMAN, JACOB (1910–1972), Yiddish poet. Born in Mielnica, Galicia, Friedman lived after World War i in Czernowitz, except for the years 1929–32, which he spent in Warsaw. In 1941 the Romanian authorities deported him to the Bershad camp in Transnistria. Liberated in March 1944, he eventually came to Bucharest and was active in the revival of Jewish cultural life there until 1947. He tried to make his way to Palestine, but reached Israel only in February 1949 after spending a year interned in Cyprus. His poetry, which he began publishing in 1927, is often filled with religious fervor. It acquired new depth due to his experience during and after the Holocaust. His lyrical and dramatic poems, first published in various journals, were included in several collections, among them: Pastekher in Yisroel ("Shepherds in Israel," 1953), Libshaft ("Love," 1967) and the posthumous Lider un Poemes ("Poems," 3 vols., 1974); four volumes appeared in Hebrew translation (1970, 1972, 1977, 1983).
bibliography:
S. Bickel, Shrayber fun Mayn Dor (1958), 175–81. add. bibliography: lnyl, 7 (1968), 478–80; E. Sela-Saldinger, A Torn Chord Trembling in the Dark, 2 vols. (1996); idem, From Transnistria to Israel (2003).