Before Conscription

Fishl Bimko

1921

Right after Passover, with the first rays of the gentle summer sun, a new worry erupted for the Jewish inhabitants of all the small towns—the call-up for military service. The “young toughs” began to erase and strike out certain names from the list of recruits, who would need to present themselves to the draft board this year. The names included…

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Creator Bio

Fishl Bimko

1890–1965

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.

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