David Ignatoff
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{short description|American writer}}
{{for|the American poet|David Ignatow}}
{{Infobox writer
| name=David Ignatoff
| image=David_Ignatoff.jpg
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| birth_name=David Ignatovski
| birth_date={{birth date|1885|10|15|df=y}}
| birth_place=Brusilov, Russian Empire
| death_date={{death date and age|1954|02|26|1885|10|15|df=y}}
| death_place=New York City, United States of America
| resting_place=Mount Carmel Cemetery
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| language=Yiddish
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| movement=Di Yunge
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| spouse=Malka "Minnie" Ignatoff (1889–1971){{cite book|first=Beth|last=Kaplan|title=Finding the Jewish Shakespeare: The Life and Legacy of Jacob Gordin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xouiAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA53|date=2007|location=Syracuse, New York|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-5175-8|pages=53–54| oclc=798255214}}
| children=Daniel Ignatoff;{{cite news|url=https://www.jta.org/1982/11/02/archive/daniel-ignatoff-dead-at-67|title=Daniel Ignatoff Dead at 67|date=2 November 1982|publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|newspaper=JTA Daily News Bulletin|page=4}} Judith (Ignatoff) Danoff
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David Ignatoff ({{Langx|yi|דוד איגנאַטאָוו}}; 15 October 1885 – 26 February 1954), born David Ignatovski ({{Langx|yi|דוד איגנאַטאָווסקי}}), was a Russian-born American Yiddish author and playwright. A member of the Di Yunge literary movement, Ignatoff wrote short stories, novels, plays, and children's stories.
Biography
David Ignatoff was born to a poor Hasidic family in Brusilov, where he received a traditional religious education.{{cite book|title=Leksikon fun der Yidisher literatur, prese un filologye|trans-title=Lexicon of Yiddish Literature, Press, and Philology|first=Zalman|last=Rejzen|author-link=Zalman Reisen|date=1926|volume=1|publisher=B. Kletzkin|location=Vilna|url=https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/yiddish-books/spb-nybc200690/rejzen-zalman-leksikon-fun-der-yidisher-literatur-prese-un-filologye-vol-1|pages=61–65}} He went to Kiev in 1903, where he became active in the Iskra faction of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party and was arrested for revolutionary activities.{{cite book | last=Iceland | first=Reuben |translator-first=Gerald|translator-last=Marcus| title=From Our Springtime: Literary Memoirs and Portraits of Yiddish New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cIeiAgAAQBAJ| publisher=Syracuse University Press | location=Syracuse, New York | year=2013 | isbn=978-0-8156-5197-0 | oclc=859687509 | page=}} He emigrated to New York City in 1906, finding work as a factory worker and union leader.
Ignatoff published his first story, "Ervachung," in Der yugend in 1907, and his novel Tsvey kreftn was published in 1908.{{r|iceland}} He helped found the literary group Di Yunge and, together with I. J. Schwartz, edited and published the literary annual Literatur in 1910. Ignatoff founded the avant-garde literary quarterly Shriftn in 1912, which he edited until 1926. He also edited the annual Velt-ayn, Velt-oys (1916).{{cite EJ|title=Ignatoff, David|first=Elias|last=Schulman|volume=9|page=715|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ignatoff-david}}
Ignatoff's "Der giber" ('The Hero'), a biblical story based on the legend of Yiftaḥ, was published in the first Shriftn. In 1918 he released Dos Farborgene Likht ('The Hidden Light', 1918), a collection of tales based on the stories of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov.{{r|EJ}} His major works include In keslgrub ('In the Crucible', 1918); Vundermayses fun Altn Prag ('Wondertales of Old Prague', 1920); the trilogy Af vayte vegn ('On Distant Roads', 1932); Dos vos kumt for (1932); and Far a nayer velt (1939).{{r|iceland}}{{cite web|website=Yiddishkayt|title=David Ignatoff: Poetic Leader of the Young Ones|url=https://yiddishkayt.org/view/ignatoff/|access-date=5 April 2019}}{{cite book|first1=Hana|last1=Wirth-Nesher|first2=Michael P.|last2=Kramer|title=The Cambridge Companion to Jewish American Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ixjqw5LdXnsC&pg=PA90|date=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-79699-6|pages=85}} He later composed the biblical plays Yiftokh ('Jephthah', 1939) and Gideon (1953).{{cite journal|last=Martin|first=Bernard|title=Yiddish Literature in the United States|journal=American Jewish Archives|volume=33|number=2|date=1981|page=197|url=http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1981_33_02_00_martin.pdf}}
In the last forty years of his life Ignatoff was a member of the staff of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. He died in New York on 26 June 1954. Arrangements for the funeral were made by the World Congress for Jewish Culture, Jewish PEN Club, Jewish Writers Union and other cultural organizations.{{cite news|url=https://www.jta.org/1954/03/01/archive/david-ignatoff-noted-jewish-author-dies-in-new-york|date=1 March 1954|publisher= Jewish Telegraphic Agency|title=David Ignatoff, Noted Jewish Author, Dies in New York|newspaper=Daily News Bulletin|page=6}}
External links
- [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Ignatoff%2C%20David%2C%201885-1954 Works of David Ignatoff] at the Online Books Page
- [https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Ignatoff%2C%20David%2C%201885-1954%22 Works of David Ignatoff] at the Internet Archive
References
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Category:People from Zhytomyr Oblast
Category:American children's writers
Category:American literary editors
Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States
Category:Jews from the Russian Empire
Category:Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
Category:Jewish American novelists