In the Grip of Cross-Currents

Born in Minsk, poet and educator Ephraim Lisitzky immigrated to the United States at the age of fifteen, ultimately moving to New Orleans. There, he became the principal of the city’s Hebrew school and settled down to write. Although his works were in Hebrew, Lisitzky drew on standard American literary tropes, writing tragic epics about the decline of Native American life and mélanges of African American folktales and spirituals. Lisitzky was the only American Hebrew poet to complete an autobiography.