Monday, August 17, 2009

Josef Burg (1912-2009)


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Josef Burg, one of last European writers who composed in Yiddish, died at the age of 97 on 10th of August in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. From the end of 1980’s and throughout 1990’s and 2000’s Mr. Burg’s works attracted a lot of attention in Germany, his books were extensively translated and published in Hans-Boldt Verlag. He widely contributed to Moscow-based Yiddish newspaper Sovietisch Heimland (Soviet Motherland) during Soviet era. However his volume of short stories, which appeared under the title Zhyzn prodolzhajetsja (Moskva: Sovjetskaja literatura, 1987), had a circulation of merely 30,000 books. Few years ago a book of Burg’s texts, entitled Kvity i Sliozy (Chernivtsi: Molodyj bukovynets, 2002), came out in Ukrainian after having been translated by the promoter of literature from Bykovyna region, Professor Petro Rychlo. In 2009 Josef Burg became a recipient of Theodor-Kramer-Preis, a prestigious Austrian literary award.

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