November 15, 2007
Yiddish writer left ‘Inheritance’ for us
TSAR Publications, a Canadian press, has published a new collection of Peretz Markish’s poetry.
For those who are not familiar, Markish had been one of the most popular Yiddish poets in the early part of the 20th century. He was known for his frequent travel and his boundless energy in organizing public readings, literary journals and academic conferences. During a stint in Warsaw in 1921, he brought together several like-minded Yiddish writers and formed a group called “The Gang.”
Unfortunately, Markish may be known as much for the way he died for as he is for the way he lived: the Yiddish writer was one of the 13 Soviet Jews executed in 1952 in Moscow’s Lubyanka prison as part of the ‘Night of the Murdered Poets.’ Josef Stalin ordered Markish and the others put to death for their participation in the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.
Prior to his murder at the hands of the state, Markish had extolled the virtues of the Soviet experiment in his poetry. He was even awarded the Order of Lenin in 1939.
Markish also wrote poetry to express the grief and sorrow caused by the extermination of the Jews during the second World War.
The 200-page volume published by TSAR, titled “Inheritance