Yo Mikhail (1895-1960)

Yo Mikhail (real name Meer Ioffe) (1895, Vitebsk – 1960, Riga), publicist, artist.

Mikhail Yo completed gymnasium and an art school in Riga. Worked as a watchmaker, painter, and sang with the renowned cantor Barukh-Leib Rozovsky. During the First World War he served in the Russian army and was wounded at the front. After returning to Riga, he worked as a stage designer in the Jewish theatre and exhibited his works in various towns across Latvia and other countries.

In 1938–39 he lived in Łódź (Poland), from where he fled after the German invasion. He began writing in Russian in his youth, publishing articles on art and theatre. From 1918 he wrote in Yiddish, contributing articles and graphic works to Jewish periodicals in Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.

In 1921 he published in Riga a Yiddish version of the Russian folk tale The Turnip, with his own illustrations; in 1927, a monograph on the artist Isaak Levitan; he also edited and illustrated Jewish satirical publications. In 1947, together with the noted Yiddish poet Leib Kvitko, he published the illustrated Alefbeys (Alphabet).

During the campaign against “cosmopolitanism” he was repressed. After his release in 1956, he returned to Riga.