Joseph Leftwich


Joseph Leftwich, born Joseph Lefkowitz, was a British critic and translator into English of Yiddish literature.

Biography

Leftwich was born in the Netherlands. He is known particularly for his 1939 anthology The Golden Peacock of Yiddish poetry, and his 1957 biography of Israel Zangwill. He was one of the 'Whitechapel Boys' group of aspiring young Jewish writers in London's East End, in the period roughly 1910–1914. He himself retrospectively coined the name, to include also the artists David Bomberg and Mark Gertler.
Leftwich was a vegetarian and an active patron of the Jewish Vegetarian Society. He wrote biographies of
vegetarian writers for The Jewish Vegetarian and an introduction for the book The Tree of Life, edited by Philip Pick, an anthology of essays on Judaism and vegetarianism.
His daughter Joan married the American writer Joseph McElroy.

Works