Teitsh, Moyshe

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TEITSH, MOYSHE

TEITSH, MOYSHE (1882–1935), Yiddish journalist, poet, novelist, and dramatist. Born near Vilna, Teitsh began his Yiddish career in 1902 under Abraham *Reisen's influence, becoming a journalist in Warsaw in 1904. His sad, autumnal lyrics and his short stories were popular before World War i, while after the 1917 Revolution he wrote proletarian lyrics and tales, a biblical drama, David un Bathsheba (1920), articles for the Moscow Yiddish daily Emes, and was the Moscow correspondent of the New York daily Frayhayt and the Buenos Aires daily Di Prese. From the mid-1920s, he reinvented himself as a prose realist devoted to pre-1917 Jewish life and contemporary events. His most significant books were A Hoyf oyf Tshebotarske ("A Courtyard on Tshebotarske," 1926) and Der Toyt fun Khaver Vili ("The Death of Comrade Willie," 1931); a selection of his 1903–23 writings, Far Tsvantsik Yor ("Twenty Years Ago") appeared in 1927; his selected works appeared posthumously in 1936.

bibliography:

Rejzen, Leksikon, 1 (1926), 1174–7; lnyl, 4 (1961), 72–6. add. bibliography: G. Estraikh, in: Jews in Eastern Europe 2 (2000), 25–55; idem, in: East European Jewish Affairs 2 (2002), 70–88.

[Sol Liptzin /

Gennady Estraikh (2nd ed.)]

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