17 Facts About Itzik Manger

Itzik Manger was a prominent Yiddish poet and playwright, a self-proclaimed folk bard, visionary, and 'master tailor' of the written word.

Itzik Manger was born to a Jewish family in Czernowitz, Austria-Hungary in 1901.

Itzik Manger's father, Hillel Helfer-Manger, was a skilled tailor in love with literature, which he referred to as 'literatoyreh'.

Itzik Manger exchanged this traditional education for the backstage atmosphere of the Yiddish theatre.

In 1921, Manger began publishing his early poems and ballads in several new literary journals founded in the aftermath of World War I Soon afterwards, he settled in Bucharest and wrote for the local Yiddish newspapers while giving occasional lectures on Spanish, Romanian, and Romani folklore.

In 1929, Itzik Manger published his first book of poetry, Shtern afn dakh, in Warsaw to critical acclaim.

Between 1929 and 1938, Itzik Manger took the Warsaw literary world by storm.

Itzik Manger gave frequent readings of his own poetry at the Writers' Club, was interviewed by all the major Warsaw Yiddish papers, published articles in the prestigious journal Literarishe Bleter, issued his own literary journal called Chosen Words filled with his poetry, fiction, and artistic manifestos.

In Songs of the Megillah, Itzik Manger uses a similar technique to politicise and de-sacralise the Biblical text read aloud on Purim.

Itzik Manger even introduces a new character into the narrative: Fastrigosso, Esther's jilted lover and a member of the Needles and Thread Tailors' Union, who conspires to assassinate King Ahashverosh to win back Esther's affections.

Itzik Manger never acquired Polish citizenship and was forced to leave the country in the light of legal difficulties, having been stripped of his Romanian citizenship and becoming stateless.

Itzik Manger left for Paris in 1938, an exile from his creative homeland.

In 1940, Itzik Manger fled to Marseilles, Tunis, Liverpool, and finally London, where he became a British citizen and remained unhappily for the next eleven years.

Itzik Manger made a visit to Israel in 1958, and then a series of short visits there every few years in 1961,1963, and 1965.

An ailing Itzik Manger returned to Israel in 1966, where he remained in a sanatorium in Gedera until his death.

Itzik Manger achieved significant success in Israeli literary and theatrical circles when, in 1965, Dov Seltzer directed a highly popular production of Itzik Manger's Songs of the Megillah.

When he died in 1969, Itzik Manger was mourned as an Israeli national poet.