Yosef Ḳerler

Born in Haysin (Gaisin, Ukraine), at seven his family moved to a Jewish kolkhoz (Mayfeld, Crimea). He studied at a technical school in Odessa (1934-7), began to study Yiddish literature, debuted with a poem in the "Odeser Arbeter "(1935), and studied at the Yiddish Drama School of the Moscow State Yiddish Theater (GOSET, 1937-41).

At the outbreak of WWII he enlisted in the Red Army and was wounded three times. His war poems constituted his first book, "Far Mayn Erd" (“Fighting for My Land,” 1944). Further poems and articles appeared in the Soviet and other Yiddish periodicals "Der Emes", "Eynikayt", "Heymland" (Moscow), "Shtern" (Kiev), "Folks-Shtime" (Warsaw), "Yidishe kultur" (New York).

In 1947 he moved to Birobidjan, worked for "Birobidzhaner Shtern", and openly protested the official policy to stop teaching Yiddish in schools. After returning to Moscow, he was arrested (April 1950) and sentenced to ten years for “anti-Soviet nationalistic activity.” In the Vorkuta Gulag, he wrote and later smuggled out several poem cycles, many included under the guise of “songs of the [Nazi] ghetto” in his second book, appearing in authorized Russian translation only ("Vinogradnik Moego Otsa" / “My Father’s Vineyard,” 1957), as also the volume "Khochu byt’ dobrym" (“I’d Love to be Good-Natured,” 1965).

During the continued lack of Yiddish publishing in the early post-Stalinist period, he collaborated with many Yiddish performers as lyricist and artistic consultant. Many of his poems were arranged and set to music, by, among others, Lev Kogan, Zinovi Kompaneets, Vladimir Shainski, Shalom Sekunda, several of which became popular, some even acquiring the status of “folksongs” (“A Glezele Yash,” “Der Tam-Ganeydevdiker Nign,” “Am Yisroel Khay”). His songs were performed, among others, by Zinovi Shulman, Nechama Lifshitzaite, Binyomin Kahiatovski, Anna Guzik, Klementina Shermel, Emil Gorovets, Sidor Belarsky, Theodor Bikel.

Many of his gulag and protest poems appeared in the "Forverts" (1969) and "Di Goldene Keyt" (1970). Together with his wife Anya Kerler, he became one of the first long-term refusniks and open advocates of free Jewish emigration. After a six-year struggle with the Soviet authorities, he was finally permitted to immigrate to Israel with his family, settling in Jerusalem (1971). Just before his arrival there he was awarded the Itzik Manger Prize, followed in ensuing years by numerous other literary prizes.

In addition to publications in various Yiddish periodicals throughout the world, six volumes of his poetry appeared in Israel: "Dos Gezang Tsvishn Tseyn" (“The Song through Clenched Teeth,” 1971; Heb. transl. "Zemer Ben ha-Sinayim", 2000); "Zet Ir Dokh" (“Despite All Odds,” 1972); "Di Ershte Zibn Yor" (“The First Seven Years,” 1986); "Himlshaft" (“Heaven Above,” 1986); "Abi Gezunt" (“For Health’s Sake,” 1993); "Shpigl-Ksav" (“Words in the Mirror,” 1996 together with his son, Boris Karloff), and two prose collections: "12 Oygust 1952" (“12 August 1952,” 1977) and "Geklibene Proze" (“Selected Prose,” 1991). Yoysef Kerler’s most recent collection of poems, "Davke itst" (“Now is the Time”), was published in Jerusalem in 2005.

Yoysf Kerler was instrumental in organizing the Jerusalem chapter of the Israeli Yiddish Writers and Journalists Association in 1972, edited a number of collections and publication, was instrumental in establishing the perennial public commemoration in Israel of the Soviet Yiddish writers, artists and intellectuals murdered by the Soviet regime in 1937 and 1952 (on August 12), and founded the acclaimed organ for Yiddish literature and culture, "Yerusholaymer Almanakh" (26 vols., 1973-1998).

His poems have been widely anthologized and translated into Russian, English, Hebrew, German, Norvegian, Ukrainian, and Chuvash.