Yushkevich, Semyon Solomonovich
YUSHKEVICH, SEMYON SOLOMONOVICH
YUSHKEVICH, SEMYON SOLOMONOVICH (1868–1927), Russian playwright and novelist. An Odessa physician, Yushkevich published his earliest work in 1897 and was encouraged by Maxim *Gorki to write about Jewish life in Russia. In his plays and narrative works he often contrasted poor, but virtuous, Jews with their wealthy, but vulgar, coreligionists.
Yushkevich's plays include Golod ("Hunger," 1905), Dina Glank (1906), and Komedia o svadbe ("The Comedy of Marriage," 1911); and his other works include Yevrei ("Jews," 1903), stories; Khaimka i Yoska (19052); and David Levin (1918). A 14-volume edition of his works appeared in 1914–18. Yushkevich also wrote plays in Yiddish, some of which – such as the highly successful Miserere (1910) were also published in Russian (1923). After immigrating to the U.S. in 1920, Yushkevich contributed to the New York Yiddish press and published the novels Epizody (1923), which dealt with the Russian civil war, and Leon Drey (3 vols., 1928). He died in Paris, and a collection of his works appeared posthumously in 1927.
bibliography:
S.S. Yushkevich, Posmertnya Proizvedenya (1927), 5–117 (introds.).