Fishl Bimko

The dramatist, journalist, and fiction writer Fishl Bimko was born into a Hasidic family in Kielce, Poland. As a teenager he spent time in prison for his revolutionary sympathies. Bimko’s works are characterized by realism and dialogue that depicted shtetls, military life for Jewish soldiers, and the world of poverty and crime, as particularly exhibited in his play Ganovim (Thieves), staged by the Vilna Troupe in 1919. Bimko moved to New York in 1921, where he continued to compose dramatic works and wrote for the Yiddish press.