Famous Yiddish writer Josef Burg dies at 97

The well-known Yiddish author Josef Burg has died at 97 in the Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi. Being known before World War I as Czernowitz in German and Yiddish the city was a focal point of Yiddish language and literature. Born in 1912 in the nearby town of Vishnits, Burg lost his entire family in the Holocaust. He survived by fleeing to the Soviet Union. He published his first story in 1934 in the Yiddish newspaper 'Chernovitser Bleter'.

Romanian authorities banned the newspaper in 1938, but Burg revived it as a monthly in 1990. He continued writing and publishing well into his 90s, receiving several awards such as Israel's Segal Prize for Yiddish writing.