The Sum of Suffering

Born in Zhukhovtsy, Russian Empire (today Zhukhautsy, Belarus), Yosef Rolnik was brought up in a traditional home, the son of a leaseholder. He attended the Mir yeshiva for one year but grew estranged from his religious upbringing. After moving to Minsk in 1895, Rolnik began writing poetry in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Russian. Encouraged to focus on his Yiddish writing by Y. L. Peretz, Rolnik moved to New York City in 1899 for a year, publishing dozens of poems in the city’s Yiddish press during his time there. Returning to Minsk, Rolnik took a hiatus of several years from his literary activity, although he maintained his relationship with the poet Avrom Reyzen, who was then also in Peretz’s circle. In 1906, Rolnik immigrated to the United States, settling permanently in New York City, where he continued to write for many Yiddish literary publications over the course of several decades and affiliated with Di Yunge, the first poetic avant-garde in Yiddish letters. His wry poetry often focused on a poet figure with no great pretensions or goals and sought beauty in the vokhedik (weekday, workaday), unexalted and mundane aspects of life.