Moysey (Moses) Fishbeyn (Ukrainian: Мойсей Абрамович Фішбейн) is an influential Ukrainian poet and translator of Jewish origin. He was born in 1946 in Chernivtsi, in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union (in present-day Ukraine).
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Moysey Fishbeyn graduated in philology in 1976 from Kiev Pedagogical Institute. He later was an editor at the Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia. The early works of the young poet were noted and supported by famous Ukrainian author Mykola Bazhan, who played a significant role in promoting Fishbeyn's first publications.
In 1979 Fishbeyn was forced to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel, for his part in the dissident movement. The limited opportunities for a Ukrainian poet in Israel forced him to emigrate again, to Germany. There Fishbein worked as a journalist at the Ukrainian diaspora magazine "Suchasnist" ("Our times"), Ukrainian and Russian services of Radio Liberty.[1]
After the collapse of the USSR, the poet returned to Ukraine.
Moysey Fishbeyn considers himself to be a Ukrainian nationalist and takes active part in the social and political life of Ukraine. His speech on the requiem-meeting about Holodomor tragedy in 2006 was often cited among the Ukrainians.[2] In March, 2008, the poet received special award from Head of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for "zeal for God’s Glory and his great contribution in informing the public of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi’s and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church clergy’s sacrificial efforts to rescue Jews during the Holocaust."[3]
The author is a member of the Writer's Union of Ukraine and Ukrainian center of International PEN Club.
By the information of Jewish Encyclopedia, Fishbeyn helped to organize medical treatment in Israel and later in Germany for the Ukrainian children hurt by the Chernobyl disaster.[1]
One of the many books of poems and poetical translations of Fishbein was published in the "Suchasnist" publishing house in New York in 1984.[1]
The poet was one of the few Ukrainian authors, presented in the world anthology "Stanzas of the century" published in Russia at the end of 20th century.
Several of Fishbeyn's poems were translated into English by Roman Turovsky.