Hoffer, Yeḥiel
HOFFER, YEḤIEL
HOFFER, YEḤIEL (1906–1972), Yiddish writer. Born in Warsaw and trained as a physician, Hoffer first wrote poetry in Polish. After spending the war in Russia and three years in Paris, where he published a volume of Yiddish poems, he immigrated to Israel in 1951. Several of his novels and short story collections, A Hoyf oyf Pokorne ("A Court in Pokorne," 2 vols., 1959, Heb. 1968), A Hoyf oyf Muranov ("A Court in Muranov," 2 vols., 1962, Heb. 1977), Reb Zalman (1960), Amol ("Once," 1963), Reb Tankhum (1966, Heb. 1968), vividly depict Jewish Warsaw, especially the hasidic courts. He also published a novel about life in a Soviet camp (1969, Heb. 1972). His literary essays were collected in Mit Yenem un mit Zikh ("With the Others and with Myself," 2 vols., 1964, 1976), and his poetry in a bilingual Yiddish-Hebrew posthumous volume (1976).
bibliography:
D. Sadan, Avnei Miftan, 2 (1970), 247–64; I. Yonasovitsh, in: Di Goldene Keyt, 82 (1974), 150–60; B. Kagan, Leksikon (1986), 210–2.