Fichman, Yakov Ilyich

The early years

Jacob Fichman was born in the Bessarabian county town of Balti in the family of a wealthy tenant Ele Fichman and his wife Pesi. He got used to reading early and came under the influence of fiction maskilim (educators) in Hebrew ( M. I. Lebenson , A. Mapu ) and realists in Yiddish (especially I. L. Peretz ). At age 14, he left home, wandered around the towns and villages of the neighboring Kherson and Podolsk provinces, finally settled in Chisinau , where he first gained access to a large library and seriously engaged in self-education, learned Russian and German, mastered Russian literature and prepared for passing gymnasium exams externally.

In Chisinau, Fichman began to write poetry in Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian. In 1900, in the Hebrew children's magazine "Gan Shaashuim" appeared his poem "Shir Aviv" ( Song of Spring ) and a translation of Lermontov's "When a Yellowing Cornfield Excites."

From Chisinau Fichman returns to his parents in Balti, immersed in traditional Jewish literature. In 1901-1903, he was in Odessa , where he met Bialik and S. Ben-Zion ; in 1903-1905, in Warsaw , where Ha-Tsofe ( Observer ) and Ha-Or ( Svet ) and in Yiddish in the largest daily newspaper “Haint” ( Today ) are already truly regularly published in Hebrew newspapers. ; here he meets I.L. Peretz - at that time the master of Jewish literary life in Warsaw.

In 1905 he returned to Chisinau again, and after the pogrom of the same year, he moved to the border Bessarabian town of Leovo (now the district center of the Leov region of Moldova ), where the famous writer Idle (Yehuda) Steinberg lived then. Three years later, Fichman leaves Leovo, lives in Vilna for a short time, and a year later - in 1909 - arrives in Odessa, where he helps I. Kh. Ravnitsky and E.L. Levinsky in preparing a four-volume collected works in Hebrew of the recently deceased Yehuda Steinberg.

Literary Debut

In the winter of 1909-10, he studied at a teacher training course in Grodno , then left for Warsaw, where in the same year his book for children “Agados ve Shirim” was published ( Tales and Poems ). In 1911, a compilation and commentary on Yiddish songs “Di Yiddish Muse” ( Jewish Muse ) and the first collection of Hebrew poems “Givolim” ( Stems ) appeared there. In 1912 he left for Palestine, where he edited the children's magazine Moledet ( Homeland ) for some time and became more and more interested in literature for children and youth.

In 1913, in Warsaw, he published a Yiddish textbook for children's literature “Far Shul Un Folk” ( For School and People ) and the second, expanded edition of Jewish folk songs, “Di Yiddish Museum” ( Welt-Bibliotek Publishing House). Soon he moved to Berlin , and with the outbreak of the First World War - again to Odessa, where he works at the publishing house of Bialik and Ravnitsky "Moria" on Bolshaya Arnautskaya Street . In 1915 he published a textbook in Hebrew “Schwilim” ( Ways: Illustrated reader for the 4th year of study ), and in 1919 a collection of essays “Bavuot” ( Reflections ).

At the end of the same year, it forever left Soviet Russia, which had become by that time, sailed the Ruslan steamer from Odessa and a few days later went ashore in the Mediterranean port of Jaffa . It resumes the publication of the magazine Moledet, translates Leonid Andreev into Hebrew, edits the children's supplement to the newspaper Haaretz , but already in 1921 leaves for Warsaw again. Here he collaborates with the Hebrew magazine ha-Tkufa ( The Epoch ) and the Yiddish newspaper Di Yiddish Welt ( Jewish World ), publishes an anthology for children’s literature in Hebrew “Lashon vSafer” ( Language and Book ) and a prose book for young people in Yiddish Shabes In Vald ( Saturday in the Woods , 1924). In 1924-25, in Chisinau, he worked in the editorial office of the newspaper Undzar Zeit ( Our Time , Yiddish) published by Zolman Rosenthal , a lot of it was published in Yiddish.

Mandatory Palestine and Israel

From 1925 until the end of his life in Palestine, he collaborated with various Hebrew publications of the mandated Palestine and the Yiddish periodicals of Poland , from 1936 to 1942 he edited the magazine Moznaim, the official organ of the Union of Hebrew writers of the country, and from 1942 until the end of his life leads a regular column in the literary supplement to the daily newspaper Davar ( Word ).

During these years, Fichman reworked a number of his own poems written in the Ashkenazi pronunciation, adapting their rhythm to a new Sephardic-based pronunciation of the settlers. One after another, the collections of “Sefer ha-Eretz” ( Book of the Earth ; prose, 1927), “Min ha-Tene” ( From the basket ; verses and prose, 1932), “Yemei Shemesh” ( Sunny days ; poems, 1934) “Tslalim Al ha-Sadot” (Field Shadows , verses, 1935), “Aviv baShomron” ( Spring in Samaria ; verses, 1943), “Peat ha-Sade” ( Land's End ; verses, 1945), “Demuyot Kedumim” ( Images of the past , prose and poetry, 1948), "Selayim b'Erushalaim" ( Rocks in Jerusalem ; verses and prose, 1951), 18 books for children and youth, 9 books of essays on Jewish writers (Bialik, Mapu, writers of Poland, Odessa and others), a collection of "Bessarabia" (1941, place with Chaim Shorer, illustrations, Nahum Gutman), poetry and prose translations from German ( Heine , Goethe , K. Hebbel, Hesse , E. P. Jacobsen), Russian ( Blok , Lermontov), French ( France , Baudelaire ). In 1951, together with K.A. Bertini and B.I. Mikhali prepared for publication the second volume of the posthumous collected works of the Bessarabian writer M. Goldenberg “ha-Tahana ha-Atik” ( Ancient Station ). Posthumously published collections of poems and memoirs of the writer.

Fichman continued to write in Yiddish. In 1949, he became one of the founders of the quarterly “Di Golden Kate” ( Golden Chain ) quarter edited by Avrom Sutskever, the country's main literary publication in Yiddish. The very first issue of the magazine opens with Fichman’s programmatic article “Between Hebrew and Yiddish,” in which he proclaims, among other things: “It is shameful and unbelievable that poets who write in Hebrew know so little about their Yiddish counterparts and that the Hebrew press pays so little attention to Yiddish literature review. ” One of the main goals of the new Yiddish publication, Fichmann sees filling and correcting this gap, the convergence of Jewish writers who write in two Jewish languages. In 1953, in Buenos Aires , a large volume of selected memoirs, essays and poems by Fichmann in Yiddish Reignboin ( Rainbow ) was published, prepared by the author and published by the Argentinean association of immigrants from Bessarabia.

Streets in different cities of Israel are named after Fichman. Since 1964, the country's Bessarabian community has been awarded the annual prize to them. Jacob Fichman in the field of literature and art, among the laureates of which are writers Meer Kharats , Ihil Shraibman , Yankl Yakir , Boris Sandler , artist Nakhum Gutman and others.

Poems and Prose

• Givolim (stems), Tushia: Warsaw, 1911.
• Bavuot (reflection, essay), Moria: Odessa, 1919.
• Sefer ha-Arez (book of the earth), Dvir, 1927.
• Min ha-Tene (from the basket, poetry and prose), Omanut, 1932.
• Yamei Shemesh (sunny days, poems), Stable, 1934.
• We say Al Al-Sadot (field shadows, poems), Shtybel, 1935.
• Bessarabia (with Chaim Shorer, illustrations by Nahum Gutman), Jerusalem, 1941.
• Aviv baShomron (spring in Samaria, poetry and prose), Sifriat Poalim, 1943.
• Peat ha-Sade (edge ​​of the field, poems), Shoken, 1945.
• Demuyot Kedumim (images of the past, verses and prose), Bialik Institute, 1948.
• Selaim Berushalaim (rocks in Jerusalem, verses and prose), Dvir, 1951.
• Arugot (garden lodges), Bialik Institute, 1954.
• Asif - Mivkhar Yetzirot (harvest, selected works), Massada, 1959.
• Kitvey Yaakov Fichman (favorites), Dvir, 1960.

For children

• Agadot veShirim (tales and verses), Mikra, 1910.
• Arava (steppe), Omanut, 1922.
• Sepharim Metsuyarim leEladim (luminated books for children), Centerl, 1923.
• BaBait u-baSade (at home and in the fields), Omanut, 1931.
• Tahat Hashamayim (under the sun), Omanut, 1931.
• BaMidbar u-baYaar (in the desert and in the forest), Omanut, 1931.
• Beһom haDarom u-be-Kor haZafon (cold of the north and heat of the south), Omanut, 1931.
• Al Khaiot inIladim Sipurim Nemadim (wonderful stories about animals and children), Omanut, 1931.
• Al Khaiot Praiot Maasiot Naot (Enviable stories about wild animals), Omanut, 1931.
• Yossi Nosea leEretz Israel (Yossi travels the Land of Israel), Omanut, 1931.
• Yossi BeTelAviv (Yossi in Tel Aviv), Omanut, 1931.
• Meoraot Yossi ve Khanan (which happened to Yossi and Hanan), Omanut, 1931.
• Megini Sade vaKerem (protector of fields and vineyard), Omanut, 1932.
• El HaYam (to the sea), Stable, 1934.
• Yiktan BeTel Aviv (Iktan in Tel Aviv), Shtybel, 1936.
• Ayelet Haemek (Valley Dew), Writers' Union, 1942.
• Daiyagim Al HaYarkon (fishermen on the Yarkon River), Am Oved, 1943.
• Yossi BaGalil (Yossi in the Galilee), Massada, 1944.
• Kalanit (anemone), Shocken, 1946.
• Im Shahar Netse (we leave at dawn), Massada, 1959.
• Aviv bAaretz (spring in the Land of Israel), Massada, 1959.

Essays on Writers

• Chaim Nachman Bialik , Knesset, 1933.
• Abraham Mapu , Moledet, 1934.
• Anshay Besor (innovators), Bialik Institute, 1938.
• Herzl Kotev Et Medinat ha-Yehudim ( Herzl writes The Jewish State), Newmann, 1946.
• Demuyot Menaznetsot (shining figures), Sifriat Poalim, 1947.
• Amat ha-Binian: Sofrey Odessa (Odessa writers), Bialik Institute, 1951.
• Rukhot Menagnot: Sofrey Pauline (writers from Poland), Bialik Institute, 1952.

• Dee Yiddish Muse: Zamlung Fun Dee Best Yiddish Lider (Jewish muse: a collection of the best Jewish songs), Farlag имimins Groiset Welt-Bibliotek: Warsaw, 1911; second edition there, 1913.
• Farn Schul un Folk (for school and people, anthology of children's literature), Warsaw, 1913.
• Shabes In Wald (Saturday in the forest, short stories), Warsaw, 1924.
• Reignboin: Zichroines, Esayen Un Lider (rainbow: memoirs, essays and poems), Besaraber Landslight Faithin Argentina: Buenos Aires , 1953.