Josef Burg, Yiddish Author, Is Dead at 97
The award-winning Yiddish author Josef Burg has died at the age of 97 in Chernivtsi, Ukraine.
Burg died Monday of a stroke, according to Austria’s Theodor Kramer Society, which presented Burg with a literary award earlier this year.
Before World War I Chernivtsi, known as Czernowitz in German and Yiddish, was the capital of the Bucovina region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a focal point of Yiddish language and literature. The region came under Romanian rule after World War I.
Born in 1912 in the nearby town of Vishnits, Burg lost his entire family in the Holocaust. He survived by fleeing to the Soviet Union. He published his first story in 1934 in the Yiddish newspaper Chernovitser Bleter. Romanian authorities banned the newspaper in 1938, but Burg revived it as a monthly in 1990.
He continued writing and publishing well into his 90s, receiving several awards such as Israel’s Segal Prize for Yiddish writing.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!