Milbauer, Joseph

views updated

MILBAUER, JOSEPH

MILBAUER, JOSEPH (1898–1968), poet. Born in Warsaw, Milbauer was raised in Brussels where, in 1914, he met Shalom *Aleichem, some of whose works he later translated. He went to Paris in 1921. Milbauer's early verse collections were well received. During the 1930s he was for a time editor of the Univers Israelite, but his outspoken Zionist opinions brought him into conflict with the paper's directors, and he resigned. Milbauer fought in both world wars and was a prisoner of war but after some harrowing experiences arrived in Ereẓ Israel as an illegal immigrant in 1944. He headed the French desk at the *Keren Ha-Yesod, and was a co-founder of a French literary circle which developed into the Association des Amitiés Israël-France. Milbauer published several more volumes of poetry, often inspired by the landscape of Israel. His other works include translations of S.Y. *Agnon, Ḥ.N. *Bialik, and S. *Tchernichowsky and the anthology Poètes yiddisch d'aujourd'hui (1936).

bibliography:

C. Vigée, in: L'Arche, 134 (1968), 63–64.

[Pascal Themanlys]