Kaganowski, Efraim

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KAGANOWSKI, EFRAIM

KAGANOWSKI, EFRAIM (1893–1958), Yiddish writer. Deeply influenced by Chekhov and Maupassant, his many stories of his native Warsaw, which appeared in the best Yiddish journals, had an international vogue and were collected in the jubilee edition Shriftn ("Works," 1951) and Poylishe Yorn ("Polish Years," 1956). The title of his earliest group of short stories, Meydlekh ("Girls"), marked the importance of the erotic theme in his works, but even more important was the specifically Jewish cultural richness that emerged from his portraits of Warsaw Jewry. Upon the German invasion of Warsaw, he found refuge in Soviet Russia, being repatriated to Poland in 1946. His last years were spent in Paris. Among his story collections are Tiren-Fenster ("Doors-Windows," 1921), Leyb un Lebn ("Body and Soul," 1928), Figurn ("Figures," 1937), and a novel, A Shtot oyf der Volge ("A City on the Volga," 1961).

bibliography:

Rejzen, Leksikon, 3 (1929), 370–3; M. Ravitch, Mayn Leksikon, 1 (1945), 212–4. add. bibliography: lnyl, 8 (1981), 7–9; Y. Botoshansky, Portretn fun Yidishe Shrayber (1933), 55–66; Y.Y. Trunk, Di Yidishe Proze in Poyln (1949), 150–51; N. Mayzl, Noente un Eygene (1957), 283–94; Y. Hofer, Mit Yenem un Mit Zikh (1964), 183–211; Y. Shpigl, Geshtaltn un Profiln (1971), 155–63.

[Melech Ravitch]