He worked himself as a tailor in different studios in Sakolau
Padliasky till 1915; from 1915 to 1918 he worked on a sewing factory in
Lithuania. In 1915 he immigrated to the USA, where he worked as a tailor on a sewing
factory in New-York (till 1923). He graduated
there from the Jewish Teachers' Seminary (1927). In 1927 – 32 he worked as a
teacher in schools under an International working order, he was a literary
contributor at the New York Communist newspaper “Morgen fraygayt” (“Free
morning”). In 1932 he moved to the USSR. He worked as a literary worker in
Belarusian Radio Committee (till 1937). In 1937 – 41 he worked as a literary
editor of the newspaper “Oktober” (“October”). He worked on the kolkhoz, on the
radio during World War II in Saransk, Mordovia SSR, and then he worked in
Yaroslavl. He returned to Minsk in November 1944. In 1949 he was repressed
illegally and in 1950 sentenced to 25 years of camp regime. In 1956 he was rehabilitated.
Then he came back to Minsk.
The first
Platner’s poems appeared in the Jewish press in Poland in 1918 (publications have
not found). In the 1920s his works were published in Jewish periodicals in the
USA. In 1930 his first book “What Day Tells” was published in New York. From
1932 he was published in Jewish editions in Minsk. During the 1930s there came
out the number of his books of poetry in Minsk: “About two Countries”, “From
America”, “Poem about Tailors”, the book of short stories "Among Children"
and others. The generosity of poetic feeling and the richness of his life
experience identifying in his poems made his work popular among the Jews. In translation
into Belarusian language came out his following books: “To my Country”, “Salt
of Life”, “My Garden”, “Gift of Heart”. Platner’s typical poems are
characterized by humanistic approach; he poeticized and opened in concrete
poetic images such moral and ethical concepts as friendship, honesty, kindness,
sincerity; he tried to convey the inner world of a person who craves for the
fullness of life and when work makes him glad and delighted. He called for
seeing the meaning of life in every day, in everything around a person and in
his soul. He was the author of children poems, translated from English and
German. His works came out as separate editions in translations into Russian
and Bulgarian languages.