Shṿeln and other literary journals of the 1920s
11 July 2013
Left, cover of November 1923 issue of Shveln from an illustration at YIVO, New York. Right side: cover of 1924 issue, courtesy Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division, PJ5120 .A359
Lejzerowicz reportedly submitted drawings to newspapers and literary journals in Łódź in the 1920s. These covers come from issues of Shveln (which means “Threshholds”) dated 1923 and 1924. The cover on the left features an illustration by the artist Marek Szwarc, originally from Zgiersk, a town just north of Łódź, who was by then living in Paris. Alas, only the cover seems to have survived.
The issue on the right survives at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, but contains no illustrations - and also no poetry or other work by Lejzerowicz. Perhaps additional issues have survived in other collections. If anyone knows of their whereabouts, please let us know!
The literary critic Chaim Leib Fox gives the following list of Yiddish-language publications to which Lejzerowicz submitted work:
1922-23: Toyz Royt / טויז רויט
1923: Vegn / וועגן
1924-25: Shveln / שוועלן
1924-25 der fraytik / דער פֿרײַטיק
1923-1939 nayer volksblat / נײַער פֿאָלקסבלאַט
Late 1920s: lodzher togeblat / לאָדזשער טאָגעבלאַט
1926-27: ekstrablat / עקסטראַבלאַט