Morris Winchevsky (Yiddish: מאָריס װינטשעװסקי; born as Leopold Benzion Novokhovitch; August 9 1856–March 18 1932), also known as Ben Netz, was a prominent Jewish socialist leader in London and the United States in the late 19th century.
Morris Winchevsky | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Leopold Benzion Novokhovitch August 9, 1856 Jonava, Lithuania |
| Died | March 18, 1932 (aged 75) New York City |
| Pen name | Ben Netz |
| Occupation | Newspaper editor, poet |
| Language | Yiddish, English, Polish |
Born in Jonava, Lithuania, in 1856,[1] Winchevsky later moved to London where, already a well known socialist, he founded the Der Poylisher Yidl (The Little Polish Jew), one of the first Yiddish daily socialist newspapers; and the Arbeter Fraynd, the first Yiddish-language anarchist newspaper.
In the US
editAfter immigrating to New York City, Winchevsky joined with Abraham Cahan and Louis Miller, two other prominent New York Jewish socialists, to found what would later become the largest Yiddish-language daily newspaper in the world, The Forward in 1897. This got them kicked out of the Socialist Labor Party. They would later migrate to the Social Democracy of America, the Social Democratic Party of America and the Socialist Party of America. Winchevsky wrote parodies directed to Jews of the Pale of Settlement in hopes of creating class consciousness.[2]
Winchevsky was later selected as the representative of the Jewish Socialist Federation to the American Jewish Congress when the AJC met to select its delegates to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. At the meeting of the Congress, Winchevsky was publicly censured by the JSF for expressing Zionist sentiments.
He was subsequently associated with the Communist Party USA and its Yiddish daily Morgen Freiheit.
Winchevsky died on March 18, 1932, and is buried in the Workmen's Circle section of Mount Carmel Cemetery, alongside other Jewish socialist leaders.[3]
Poetry
editWinchevsky is known for his role in the development of Yiddish poetry. Notably, he was a member of the Proletarian Poets, an association formed with Winchevsky, Morris Rosenfeld, David Edelstadt, and Joseph Bovshover.
Tributes
editA "secular humanist" Jewish Sunday school in Toronto, Ontario, was named after Winchevsky. Founded in 1928, the Morris Winchevsky School is run by the United Jewish People's Order.
References
edit- ^ Encyclopedia of American Jewish History
- ^ "Parody". YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews of Eastern Europe.
- ^ Goren, Arthur Aryeh (1994). "Sacred and Secular: The Place of Public Funerals in the Immigrant Life of American Jews". Jewish History. 8 (1/2): 298. doi:10.1007/BF01915918. ISSN 0334-701X. JSTOR 20101201. S2CID 162336472.
Further reading
edit- Melech Epstein, Profiles of Eleven. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1965.
- Irving Howe, World of Our Fathers: The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976.