Friday 30 January 2015

MORTKHE-ARN BIRNBOYM (MAB)

MORTKHE-ARN BIRNBOYM (MAB)
He was the author of Politish-ekonomish verterbukh (Dictionary of political economy) (Warsaw, 1929), 334 pp., which he published under the pseudonym “A. mab” [his initials].

MORTKHE (ABA) BIRNBOYM

MORTKHE (ABA) BIRNBOYM (1877-1934)
He was born in Shereshev (Sharashova), Grodno region, to wealthy parents.  In 1890s, he settled in Warsaw.  He was the founder of the publishing house “Mayselekh” (short stories) which had become famous with its textbooks for younger and older children—at the time the only teaching material for Jewish schools.  Birnboym was active in the revolutionary movement of the early twentieth century in Russia-Poland, and he was a teacher in the school for girls of Puah Rakovsky, his wife, in which Yiddish had already been introduced as a subject.  He was a member of the pedagogical commission of the Peretz Children’s Home in Warsaw.  He participated in the Czernowitz language conference on 1908, and he fought for Yiddish during the German occupation during WWI.  Among his books: Khrestomatye far dervaksene (Reader for adults), part 1, for evening and Shabbat schools (Warsaw, 1907), 184 pp. (reprint, 1912, 160 pp.); Folks-shule (Public school), with David Kassel, a textbook for beginners, vol. 1 (Warsaw), 105 pp.; Praktishe yudishe gramatik, elementarkurs: ortografye, etimologye un sintaksis (Practical Yiddish grammar, beginning course: orthography, etymology, and syntax) (Warsaw, 1917, 1919), 2 parts, 179 pp.; Yidishe geshikhte fun velt-bashafung biz di shoftim (Jewish history from the creation of the world until Judges), with Moyshe Taytsh, part 1 (Warsaw, 1917); Mayn bukh, lernbukh farn tsveytn shulyor (My book, textbook for the second year in school) (Warsaw, 1921), 181 pp.; Naturvisnshaft, luft un vaser (Natural science, air and water), with David Kassel, part 1 (Warsaw, 1920), 100 pp.; Kinder fraynt, khrestomatye farn 2tn shulyor, ilustrirte (Children’s friend, a reader for the second school year, illustrated) (Warsaw, 1916), 195 pp.

Sources: Shriftn far psikhologye un pedagogik (Writings om psychology and pedagogy), vol. 1 (Vilna, 1933); Puah Rakovsky, Zikhroynes fun a yidisher revolutsyonerin Memoirs of a Jewish revolutionary) (Buenos Aires, 1954), pp. 96-164; Algemeyne entsiklopedye (General encyclopedia), vol. 5 (New York, 1944); Kh. Sh. Kazdan, Di geshikhte fun yidishn shulvezn in umophengikn poyln (The history of the Jewish school system in independent Poland) (Mexico, 1947), see index.


MARTIN (MORTKHE-EZRIEL) BIRNBOYM (BIRNBAUM)

MARTIN (MORTKHE-EZRIEL) BIRNBOYM (BIRNBAUM) (October 29, 1904-August 1, 1986)
     He was born in Zukov, eastern Galicia.  His father, Hersh, was a distiller.  He studied in a Hebrew and in a Polish school.  During WWI he lived in the Bukovina Carpathians, later in a Viennese home for child refugees, and later still in Brin.  From 1917 he was back living in the city of his birth and making preparations to go to Palestine.  In 1920 he settled in Vienna, and in 1923 he emigrated to the United States where he became a laborer in fur-ware.  He studied in a New York evening high school.  Initially he wrote poems in German for New York’s Deutsche Volkszeitung (German people’s newspaper).  In 1929 he began writing Yiddish poems and published them in Frayhayt (Freedom).  He also wrote trade songs.  He contributed pieces to: Hamer (Hammer), Naylebn (New life), Funken (Sparks), and Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture), and he was on the editorial board of Signaln (Signals).  He was a teacher in the International Workers’ Order (IWO).  He was one of the most talented poets in the leftist camp.  Among his books: Vayzers (Hands [on a clock]) (New York, 1934), 158 pp.; and Der veg aroyf (The way up) (New York, 1939), 208 pp.; Lider fun haynt un nekhtn (Poems of today and yesterday) (Tel Aviv: Peretz Publ., 1978), 316 pp.; Lider vegn lid un andere lider (Poems about poetry and other poems) (New York: IKUF, 1981), 160 pp.; His work was included in: In shotn fun tliyes (In the shadow of the gallows) (Kiev-Kharkov, 1932).

 

Sources: Moyshe Shtarkman, in Hemshekh-antologye (Continuation anthology) (New York, 1945), pp. 333-39; Y. A. Rontsh, in Hemshekh-antologye, pp. 152-53; Joseph Leftwich, comp., The Golden Peacock: An Anthology of Yiddish Poetry Translated into English Verse (Cambridge, Mass., 1939), pp. 152-53; Yevreyskaya poeziya (Jewish poetry) (New York, 1947), pp. 214-17.

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 85-86.]

M. BIRNBOYM

M. BIRNBOYM
He published stories in the Bundist Veker (Alarm) in Minsk (1918); no. 360 of Veker has his piece, “A yomkiper-legende” (A Yom Kippur legend).

Source: B. Orshanski, Di yidishe literatur in vaysrusland nokh der revolutsye (Yiddish literature in Byelorussia after the revolution) (Moscow, 1931), pp. 151-52.


M[OYSHE] BIRNBOYM

M[OYSHE] BIRNBOYM
     He was a teacher of Hebrew and German in communities in Moldavia.  He managed a home for orphans in Jassy.  From 1889 he was publishing in Hayoets levet yisrael (Advisor to the House of Israel) in Bucharest; from 1895 he was writing didactic verse for Dos naye folksblat (The new people’s newspaper) in Bucharest (issue no. 1, March 1892) and for Ahavat tsiyon (Love of Zion) in Galați (February 28-August 28, 1893).  He also wrote poetry as well as plays which were staged in the Romanian Yiddish theater: Di yudishe printsesin (The Jewish princess), Nikodeymen un khane (Nicodemus and Hannah), and R’ itsik sholem (R. Itsik Sholem), a satire on a Hassidic rebbe.  He edited Nes tsiyona (The miracle of Zion) in Galați of which five issues (September 7, 1908-February 6, 1909) appeared.  He also authored the book: Lider (Poems) (Piatra Neamț, 1893), 52 pp.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Z. Zilbertsvayg, Teater-leksikon, vol. 1.
Y. Kara

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 86.]

YOYSEF-HALEVI BIRNBOYM

YOYSEF-HALEVI BIRNBOYM
He was a religious poet, author of the poem “Taor oder tome” ([Ritually] pure or impure) and of the one-act play, In a beynashmoshes (At twilight).  He died during WWII and the Nazi occupation of Poland.

Source: M. Prager, Antologye fun religyeze lider un dertseylungen (Anthology of religious poems and stories) (New York, 1955), pp. 589-96.


Thursday 29 January 2015

Y. BIRNBOYM

Y. BIRNBOYM (d. April 10, 1960)
     Born in Galicia, he lived in Argentina.  By trade he was a compositor.  He translated from German to Yiddish three books by Rudolf Rocker: Die Rationalisierung der Wirtschaft und die Arbeiterklasse as Di ratsyonalizatsye fun der virtshaft in der arbeter-klas (The rationalization of the economy and the working class) (Buenos Aires, 1930), 168 pp.; Nationalismus und Kultur as Natsyonalizm un kultur (Nationalism and culture) (Buenos Aires, 1949), 740 pp.; and In shturem, goles yorn (In the storm, years in exile) (Buenos Aires, 1952), 809 pp.  Also, Luigi Fabbri, Enriko malatesta, zayn lebn un zayne sotsyale ideen (Enrico Malatesta, his life and his social ideas) (Buenos Aires, 1932), 48 pp.; Martin Buber, Pfade in Utopia (Paths in Utopia) as Shtegn in utopye (Buenos Aires: Bukhbemaynshaft, 1959), 208 pp.; and one volume of Rudolf Rocker’s Yugnt fun a rebl (Youth of a rebel) (Buenos Aires: Bukhgemaynshaft, 1965-1971).  He died in Buenos Aires.

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 85.]

AVROM-BER BIRNBOYM

AVROM-BER BIRNBOYM (January 30, 1965-November 11, 1922)
     He was born in Pułtusk, Poland, into a family of Kotsker Hassidim. He made his way to Lodz in 1886.  In 1888 he became the cantor and ritual slaughterer in a town in Hungary, perfected himself in the theory of music, and taught German.  He published articles in Hatsfira (The siren).  In 1893 he became the cantor and ritual slaughterer in Częstochowa, published Yarḥon haḥazanim (Cantors’ monthly), and in 1902 published a musical theory in Yiddish and Hebrew entitled Torat hazemira hakelalit (General rules of music).  In 1906 he opened in Częstochowa a school for cantors, and the following year in Warsaw he convened the first cantorial congress; over the years 1909-1912 he brought out the monumental cantorial work, Amanut haḥazanut (The artistry of cantorship).  He was a popularizer of Jewish music in the Yiddish and Hebrew press.  He composed music to the poems of Yankev Cohen and to prayers for the Kabbalat-Shabbat service.  He died in Częstochowa.

Source: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1.


TSIPORE BIRMAN

TSIPORE BIRMAN (d. in the Bialystok ghetto in 1943)
She was born in Vilna.  After the invasion of Hitler’s armies, she surreptitiously made her way to Bialystok together with other members of the pioneer group Dror (Freedom), founded the settlement of Tel-Ḥai (Mound of life), and began to organize attacks on the Germans.  In the Bialystok ghetto, she wrote Di geshikhte fun dem kibets tel-khai (The history of the Tel-Ḥai kibbutz) and of the wrestling with ideas with which they were concerned at the time.  She also wrote a work entitled Geto-byalistok (Bialystok ghetto) and other notes that have been preserved in the Jewish Historical Archive in Warsaw.

Sources: B. Mark, Der oyfshtand in byalistoker geto (The uprising in the Bialystok ghetto) (Warsaw, 1954); B. Mark, Umgekumene shrayber fun di getos un lagern (Murdered writers from the ghettos and camps) (Warsaw, 1954).


MEYER (MEIR) BIRMAN

MEYER (MEIR) BIRMAN (November 24, 1891-December 24, 1955)
Born in Ponevezh (Panevezys), Kovno region, he attended religious elementary schools and yeshivas, in addition to studying with private teachers.  During the expulsion of Lithuanian Jews (May 1915), he was deported to Melitopol in the Tavrich region.  In 1917 he left for Harbin in Manchuria.  Over the years 1939-1949, he was living in Shanghai, China.  In 1916 he began to contribute to the Russian press in Melitopol.  In 1920 he began publishing articles, correspondence pieces, and feature essays in the Yiddish press under the pseudonyms: M. Litay, M. Ben-Menachem, A Ponyevezher, A Vayt-mizrakhisher, and M. Rokhels, among others.  He published depictions of Jewish refugees in Siberia, about Jewish life in the Far East, the Subotniks in eastern Siberia, and about the tribe of Chinese Jews as well as the Japanese who claimed that they descended from Jews.  He wrote for: Folks-tsaytung (People’s newspaper) in New York, Tog (Day) in Vilna, Yidisher folksblat (Jewish newspaper) in Kovno, Tog in New York, Yidishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) in Argentina, and elsewhere.  Over the years 1920-1922, he was the editor of the one and only Yiddish-language newspaper in the Far East, Der vayter mizrekh (The Far East), published three times each week in Harbin.  He was also the editor, 1919-1920, of the Yiddish-Russian bilingual Nashe slovo (Our word).  He was as well the director of HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) in China, head of the publishing houses of “Tsukunft” (Future) and “Yidish,” and a leader of various communal and cultural organizations.  Birman was the literary address in the Far East to which writer-travelers came, including: Perets Hirshbeyn, Melech Ravich, B. Ts. Goldberg, and others.  On the eve of the Communist upheaval, he escaped in May 1949 from Shanghai and arrived in the United States.  He died in New York.

In the December issue (1955) of the monthly journal Dorem-afrika (South Africa) in Johannesburg, an interesting work by Birman appeared, entitled “Kantonistn un zeyer seyfer toyre” (Cantonists and their Torah scroll), with a rare Cantonist song, “In der tsayt fun di kantonistn” (In the time of the Cantonists), and the notes to the melody of the song.

Wednesday 28 January 2015

YISROEL-ZALMEN BIRMAN

YISROEL-ZALMEN BIRMAN (b. April 5, 1884)
Born in Sądowa-Wisznia, Galicia, he published articles in Machzikei hadat (Holder of the faith), Hamitspeh (The watch tower), and in Sądowa’s Folks-fraynd (Friend of the people).

Source: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1.


TSVI (TSEVI) BIKELS-SHPITSER

TSVI (TSEVI) BIKELS-SHPITSER (April 27, 1887-January 2, 1917)
Born in Lemberg, he attended religious primary school and public school, subsequently in middle school and university in Lemberg and Vienna.  In 1911 he graduated with a law degree and practiced locally.  A member of the student Zionist circle Hashaḥar (The dawn) and a thorough expert in the Hebrew language, he became—contrary his friends—one of the champions of Yiddish in Galicia.  He wrote critical and feature pieces in Yiddish, and in a series of works in Dos yidishe vokhnblat (The Jewish weekly newspaper), Dos naye lebn (The new life) in New York, and Der fraynd (The friend) in Warsaw, he acquainted his readers with the writings of the young Yiddish writers in Galicia.  He contributed as well to Der yudisher arbayter (The Jewish laborer) in Lemberg, Der tog (The day) in Cracow, and Gershom Bader and M. Frostig’s Kalendar (Calendar), among others.  In 1910 he edited, together with Bader and Yankev Mestl, the anthology Yung-galitsisher almanakh (Young Galician almanac).  He became editor-in-chief in 1915 of Tageblat (Daily news) in Lemberg, where he had earlier been the literary and theater critic.  In addition to a major work on the repertoire of Yankev Gordin, he wrote a play in three acts entitled Der goyel (The redeemer), and Dr. Nosn Birnboyn (Nathan Birnbaum) translated it into German.  The translation, like the original, remain in manuscript.  In his literary bequest was as well a work entitled “Di heroishe motivn in peretses shafn” (The heroic motifs in Peretz’s works), which was later first published in Di goldene keyt 10 (The golden chain) (Tel Aviv, 1951).

Sources: Sefer tsevi bikels-shpitser, demuto veyetsirato (Tsvi Bikels-Shpitser, his figure and his creation), ed. and trans. by Dov Shtok (Tel Aviv, 1947/1948); D. Sadan, in Di goldene keyt 10 (Tel Aviv, 1951), pp. 64-65; Z. Zilbertsvayg, Teater-leksikon, vol. 1; Dr. Y. Tenenboym, Galitsye, mayn alte heym (Galicia, my old home) (Buenos Aires, 1952), p. 168; D. Leybl, in Nay-velt 46 (Tel Aviv, 1948).


SHLOYME BIKL (SHLOMO BICKEL)

SHLOYME BIKL (SHLOMO BICKEL) (June 8, 1896-September 3, 1969)
     He was born in Ustechko, Eastern Galicia.  His father, Yitskhok, descended from an elite family of Misnogdim (anti-Hassidic, religious Jews) in Galicia.  He was a maskil (enlightenment figure) and a Zionist in the Chibat-Tsiyon (Love of Zion) era, and he was an avid reader of contemporary Hebrew and Yiddish writers.  He attended public school, a Polish high school in Kołomyja (Kolomyia), and at the same time he was studying the Hebrew Bible, Gemara, and Tosafot in religious school—and later with a private tutor, he studied Hebrew and Hebrew literature.  He was drafted in 1915 into the Austrian army and became an officer—demobilized in 1918.  For a short time he was commandant of the Jewish Legion in the Ukrainian National Army in Kołomyja.  From early 1919 he settled in Czernowitz which had then fallen under Russian control.  He studied law in the university there and graduated in 1922 with a doctor of law degree.  Bikl began writing when still in secondary school.  He was a contributor to Maḥshavotenu (Our thoughts), a hectographically produced Young Zionist publication in Kołomyja.  In May 1919 he published in Frayhayt (Freedom), a Poale-Tsiyon weekly in Czernowitz, his first article in Yiddish—a polemic with Aḥad Ha’am.  Initially he became a regular contributor to and later the editor of Frayhayt, in which over the course of three years he published current events articles, feature pieces, and essays of criticism.  In September 1922, Bikl moved to Bucharest where he practiced law for the next sixteen years; in 1939 he emigrated to the United States.  During his years as a lawyer in Bucharest, he continued his writing, contributing to: Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture), an anthology, edited by Leyzer Shteynberg (Czernowitz, 1921); Shoybn (Panes of glass), a monthly, edited by Yankev Shternberg (Czernowitz, 1924); Literarishe bleter (Literary pages) in Warsaw; Tog (Day), a regular contributor from 1940, Tsukunft (Future), Yidisher kemfer (Jewish fighter), Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor), Inzikh (Introspective), Kultur un dertsiung (Culture and education), Undzer veg (Our way), and Opatoshu-leyvik-zamlbukh (Opatoshu-Leivick anthology), all in New York; and Di prese (The press) in Buenos Aires.  A great number of his works were essays on literary and social themes.  Among his books: Inzikh un arumzikh, notitsn fun a polemist in kritishe bamerkungen (In and around oneself, notes of a polemicist and critical observations) (Bucharest, 1936), 187 pp.; A shtot mit yidn, zikhroynes un geshtaltn (A city with Jews, memoirs and impressions) (New York, 1943), 246 pp.; Detaln un sakhaklen, kritishe un polemishe bamerkungen (Details and sum totals, critical and polemical observations) (New York, 1943), 256 pp.; Eseyen fun yidishn troyer (Essays of Jewish sorrow) (New York, 1948), 246 pp.; Yidn davenen (Jews at prayer) (New York, 1948), 201 pp.; Dray brider zaynen mir geven (I had three brothers) (New York: Matones, 1956), 234 pp.; Rumenye: geshikhte, literatur-kritik, zikhroynes (Romania: history, literary criticism, memoirs) (Buenos Aires: Kiem, 1961), 400 pp.; Mishpokhe artshik (The family Artshik) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1967), 198 pp.; Di brokhe fun sheynkeyt, eseyen vegn avrom sutskever (The blessing of beauty, essays on Avrom Sutzkebver) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1969), 60 pp.; Shrayber fun mayn dor (Writers of my generation) (New York: Matones, 1958-1970), 3 vols.  A volume dedicated to him: Shloyme bikl yoyvl-bukh: Ateret Shelomo, tsu zayn 70stn geboyntog (Shloyme Bikl jubilee volume, on his 70th birthday) (New York: Matones, 1967), 331 pp.  Edited journal issues: Di frayhayt (Czernowitz, 1920-1922); Undzer veg, a periodical (together with Yankev Shternberg) (Bucharest, May 1926-June 1929); Di vokh (The week), for a short time only with Moyshe Altman (Bucharest, 1934-1935); Shoybn, initially a monthly and later a weekly (Bucharest, 1934-1938); and Di yidishe esey (The Yiddish essay), an anthology (New York, 1946).
     His political and social activities included: secretary (1919-1922) in Czernowitz of the Bukovina national organization of Poale-Tsiyon; chairman of the Culture League of Bucharest; member of the central committee of the Jewish cultural federation of Greater Romania; member of HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) central committee in Bucharest; and Romanian member of the YIVO world council.  In New York: member of the world council of the International Jewish Culture Congress; member of the YIVO administrative committee; and vice-chairman of the Jewish Pen Club.
Bikl was one of the more prominent columnists, essayists and literary critics.  “Shloyme Bikl was not tricked into essay writing.  He is an essayist, and as one reads through his books, one senses that one is actually reading the essayistic autobiography of the new Jew, with the language of his thoughts, with prepared material.  Bikl renders clearer for us the spiritual pathway of such Jews who have in their own way developed a profound, Jewish perseverance.” (Yankev Glatshteyn)  Among his pseudonyms: Aleksander Kluzher, Sh. Kirs, Sh. Ḥad, Sh. B., Shin Bet, Sh. Verbosh, A. M. Babshi,  and Leybush Gefner.  He was last living in New York.



Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Froym Oyerbakh, in Morgn-zhurnal (November 9, 1943 and August 13, 1948); Y. Botoshanski, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (October 6, 1948 and March 14, 1951); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Yidisher kemfer (February 24, 1950); D. Leybl, in Nay-velt (Tel Aviv) (September 30, 1949); A. Liessin, in Tog (August 21, 1948 and September 9, 1950); Shmuel Niger, in Tog (November 2, 1937, March 12, 1944, and April 9, 1944); Dov Sadan, in Hapoel hatsair (Tel Aviv) (November 17, 1953); N. B. Minkov, in Algemeyne entsiklopedye (General encyclopedia), vol. 5 (New York, 1944); Moyshe Shtarman, in Tog (September 12, 1943 and December 5, 1948).

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 85.]

YANKEV-SHMUEL BIK (YAAKOV-SHMUEL BICK)

YANKEV-SHMUEL BIK (YAAKOV-SHMUEL BICK) (1772-1831)
Born in Brod (Brody), Galicia, he was a Hebrew writer and translator, as well as an outstanding maskil (enlightenment figure) in Galicia.  Bik was distinguished among his maskilic contemporaries for his tolerance with respect to Hassidim and for his demonstrating a love for Yiddish.  Bik was the first Hebrew writer in the Enlightenment epoch who defended the Yiddish language and literature.  In 1823 he sharply and clearly countered a pamphlet entitled Kol meatsetsim (Voice of the archers) that Tuvye Feder wrote against Mendl Lefin for having translated Proverbs into the Yiddish of Volhynia.  In Bik’s reply to Feder’s pamphlet, he marveled with chagrin at “how one could blanket with calumny a language that our fathers spoke over the course of 400 years!”  He reminded the maskilim that “all languages were, in the initial phase of their development, just as labored and rough as zhargon, but with development of a literature the language became refined.”  Bik’s rebuttal was first translated into Yiddish in Kol mevaser (The herald) in 1863, but like everything else that the maskilim wrote at that time, Bik’s Hebrew-language reply to Feder circulated in manuscript.  Over the course of many years, Bik wrote memoirs.  The manuscript of them, though, was lost in the great fire in Brod of 1835.  Bik died in Brod.

Sources: Shmuel Niger, in Tsukunft (January 1922, May 1924); E. R. MalaChi, in Tsukunft (October 1928); Zalmen Reyzen, in Literarishe bleter (October 16, 1931); Morgn-zhurnal (September 14, 1936); Maks Erik, Etyudn tsu der geshikhte fun der haskole (Studies in the history of the Jewish Enlightenment) (Minsk, 1934); Dr. R. Tsinberg, Di geshikhte fun der literatur bay yidn (The history of Jewish literature) (Vilna, 1936), vol. 7, book 2, pp. 262-66; Dr. P. Fridman, in Fun noentn over (From the recent past) 4 (Warsaw, 1937); Sh. Verses, in Yivo-bleter 13.7-8 (November-December 1938), pp. 306-36.


Tuesday 27 January 2015

A.-M. BYELENKI

A.-M. BYELENKI (b. ca. 1890)

Born in a town near Warsaw, Poland, he was living in Warsaw in the years 1909-1912.  He began to publish poems in Roman-tsaytung (Fiction newspaper) in Warsaw (1909).  He also published in Der shtral (The ray of light) in Warsaw (1909-1910).  He brought out a booklet, In tsoyber-nets (In the web of enchantment) (Warsaw, 1912), 32 pp.  Lyrical poems, some of which could be found here, were dedicated to Mendele Moykher-Sforim (on the occasion of his jubilee in 1912) and to Z. Y. Onkhi.  Subsequent news of him remains unknown.

ELYE (ELIHU, LOUIS) BYELI

ELYE (ELIHU, LOUIS) BYELI (b. July 6, 1891)
Born in Bohopolye (Bogopol), Ukraine, he attended religious elementary school and a commercial school in Odessa.  In 1907 he emigrated to the United States.  He was an employee at Tageblat (Daily news), later head manager of the newspaper.  For many years he held positions at Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal).  His first published writings appeared in 1907, a sketch in Tageblat.  Later he published as well in Morgn-zhurnal, Amerikaner (American)—sketches, feature pieces, theater criticism, and reviews.  In 1932 he visited Soviet Russia and published travel impressions.  He was living in New York.



Sources: P. Rudoy, in Der amerikaner (New York) (December 22, 1950).


ARN-LEYB BISKO

ARN-LEYB BISKO (1859-1929)
He was born in St. Petersburg where his father, a Nikolaievskii soldier (one who had served in the army of Tsar Nikolai I for twenty-five years) had served in the military.  Later, he lived in Poland where he studied in religious elementary school and yeshivas.  He moved to England and from there contributed to the Hebrew and Yiddish press.  Among his books: Ḥokhmat hapartsuf (Physiognomy), a translation from Russian into Hebrew (Warsaw, 1888); Pirke talmud (Sections of the Talmud) (Warsaw, 1902); Torat hamusikah (The theory of music) (London, 1924); in Yiddish translation an adaptation of a story by Tolstoy entitled Der malekh (An indifferent person [Rus. Chem liudi zhivy = What do men live by?]) (Berdichev, 1894); and a Yiddish-Hebrew dictionary entitled Milon male veshalem zhargoni-ivri (A complete jargon [Yiddish]-Hebrew dictionary), with a preface by the editor, Dr. Y. M. Zalkind (London, 1913), 255 pp.  The Yiddish words in this dictionary were arranged, on the whole, according to the Yiddish-English dictionary of Alexander Harkavy and then translated into Hebrew.

Source: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1.


MEYER BISTRITSKI

MEYER BISTRITSKI (b. February 1899)
Born in Ruzhyn, Kiev region, Ukraine, he descended from an affluent family.  He received a Jewish education in religious primary school and middle school.  He graduated from secular high school in Kiev, and studied jurisprudence in Kiev and St. Petersburg and philosophy in Germany.  In 1922 he left Russia and settled in Danzig.  For a period of ten years he worked there as secretary of the “Ostjüdischer Verein” (Association of eastern Jews).  In Russia, he contributed to a Russian newspaper.  He published works on current literary events in Russian and German publications.  He was a regular contributor to Danzig’s Jüdisches Gemeindeblatt (Jewish community newspaper) in German.  Over the years 1929-1939, he was the Danzig correspondent for Moment (Moment) in Warsaw.  Prior to the outbreak of WWII, he emigrated to the United States.  He was the traveling representative (1942-1945) for Tsukunft (Future) in New York, and an active leader in the Jewish National Workers Alliance.  He was assistant editor, 1940-1941, of Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor) in New York.  He published his literary writings in Tsukunft, Tog (Day), Fray arbeter shtime, Byalistoker shtime (Voice of Bialystok), and Byalistoker lebn (Bialystok life).  He was last living in New York.

Source: “Undzere mitarbeter” (Our contributors), Tsukunft (New York) (March 1943).


YITSKHOK BISTRITSER

YITSKHOK BISTRITSER (b. November 23, 1907)

Born in Lepanta, Czechoslovakia, he was in Nazi concentration camps.  Upon liberation, he settled in Munich and edited Di yidishe shtime (The Jewish voice), organ of the Mizrahi movement among survivors living in Germany.  He published articles on religious and political matters.  He was last living in Israel.

Monday 26 January 2015

YEHUDE-LEYB BINSHTOK

YEHUDE-LEYB BINSHTOK (1836-October 22, 1894)
     Born in Lukatsh (Lukach), Volhynia, Ukraine, he attended religious elementary school until age nine or ten.  Around that time, circa 1846, the Cantonist laws (drafting Jewish teenagers into the tsarist military for twenty-five years) of 1827 took on an especially harsh form.  “Kidnappers” (khapers) lay in hiding at every step to seize eight-to-ten year-old children.  The surest safeguard was a Russian school.  Binshtok’s father, Moyshe, turned him over to a Russian public school in Zhitomir.  In 1858 he graduated from the Zhitomir rabbinical seminary, and thereafter he studied for a time in a yeshiva in Mogilev, Podolia.  From 1862 he was the rabbi of Zhitomir, and later he became the “learned Jew” serving the governor of Volhynia and working as a teacher of Judaism in a Zhitomir high school.  In 1881 he participated, without the knowledge of the governor, in a conference of Jewish community leaders in connection with the wave of local pogroms and was consequently dismissed from his posts.  He remained in St. Petersburg for a number of years where he took up the position of secretary for the St. Petersburg Jewish community, and later of the “Khevre mefitse haskalah” (Society for the promotion of enlightenment [among the Jews of Russia]).  In 1892 he traveled to Palestine as plenipotentiary of the Odessa “Committee to Support Jewish Agricultural Laborers and Artisans.”  Over the course of the years that he held this position in Israel, he worked energetically to bring the Sefardi and Ashkenazi sections of the Jewish community together.  He founded the first Hebrew school in Jaffa and created there the first library in the name of Y. L. Levanda.  He died in Jaffa.
     He began his literary activities in 1860 with currents events articles in the first Russian Jewish magazines, Rassvet (Dawn) and Sion (Zion).  In 1868 (1867?) he published a Russian translation of Mendele’s Haavot vehabonim (Father and sons); in 1868 he translated into Yiddish, together with Mendele, Jules Verne’s Five Weeks in a Balloon as Der luftbalon; in 1870 he helped Mendele write the popular scientific booklet, Der fish, vos hot ayngeshlungen yoyne hanovi (The fish that swallowed Jonah the prophet); in 1874—again together with Mendele—he translated into Yiddish Ustav o voinskoi povinnosti vysochaishe as Dos gezets vegn algemayne militer-flikht (The law concerning general military duty).  He also contributed to Yudishes folksblat (Jewish people’s newspaper) and to Voskhod (Sunrise).  He published in 1884 a critical biographical treatise concerning Mendele in connection with the jubilee of Mendele’s twenty-fifth literary work.  The biographical information in this work remains until today an important source for all works concerning Mendele’s life.  In 1891 Binshtok—using the pseudonym “Uleinikov”—published in Russian the results of his research on the Jewish colonies in the Ekatorinoslav region; in 1896 the Zionist organization the Galicia published, under the auspices of R. Shlomo Berliner, Binshtok’s Dertseylungen funem yidishn lebn in rusland (Tales of Jewish life in Russia), 71 pp.  Mendele’s closest friend from 1863 until 1892, they carried on a frequent correspondence.  For the historiography of Yiddish literature, Mendele’s letters to Binshtok are an exceedingly important source.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; D. Tidhar, Entsiklopedyah lealutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the founders and builders of Israel) (Tel Aviv, 1949), vol. 3, p. 1280; Sh. Ginzburg, “Mendele moykher-sforim in zayne briv” (Mendele Moykher-Sforim in his letters), in his Historishe verk (Historical works) (New York, 1937), vol. 1, pp. 140-63; “Fun undzer arkhiv” (From our archive), Tsaytshrift 5 (Minsk, 1931), pp. 1-42; Avrom Abtshuk, Mendele moykher-sforim (Kiev, 1927), pp. 12ff; Shmuel Niger, Mendele moykher-sforim, zayn lebn, zayne gezelshaftlikhe un literarishe oyftuungen (Mendele Moykher-Sforim, his life, his social and literary feats) (Chicago, 1936).


PEYSEKH BINETSKI (PESACH BINETZKI, BINECKI)

PEYSEKH BINETSKI (PESACH BINETZKI, BINECKI) (1912-January 3, 1966)
     Born in Bialystok, Poland, he attended religious primary school and a Polish public school.  As a child of impoverished parents, he became a factory laborer at a tender age, and because he belonged to the left wing of the labor movement, he spent six year in Polish prisons and came out a sickly man.  In 1941 at the time of the German surprise attack against Russia, he (together with a group of Jewish writers) escaped from the Nazis.  He was in Novokuznetsk, near Saratov, and there he worked on a collective farm.  He later was in Alma Ata where he worked for a time in a coal mine.  In 1946, during the repatriation, he returned to Poland and settled in Lodz.  From 1949 he was living in Israel.  He began publishing individualistic lyrical and revolutionary poems in Inzl (Island), edited by Zishe Bagish (Bialystok, 1937).  He also published in Unzer lebn (Our life) in Bialystok, Literarishe bleter (Literary pages) in Warsaw, in the Soviet Byalistoker shtern (Bialystok star) (1939-1941), Der shtern (The star) in Minsk, Tsum zig (To victory) in Moscow, Dos naye lebn (The new life), Yidishe shriftn (Yiddish writings), Folks-shtime (Voice of the people), Oyfgang (Arise) in Poland, and Nay-velt (New world), and Letste nayes (Latest news) in Israel.  Aside from poems, he wrote short stories, impressions, reportage pieces, and articles as well.  Among his book-length works: A fenster tsu der velt, lider (A window on the world, poems) (Lodz, 1948), 70 pp.; Lider (Poems) (Warsaw: Yidish bukh, 1957), 89 pp.; Oysdoyer, lider un poemen (Perseverance, songs and poems) (Tel Aviv, 1963), 259 pp.; Hemshekh, lider (Continuation, poetry) (Tel Aviv, 1966), 107 pp.  This collection includes poetry written in Poland and Russia but not his later, more nationalistic and more poetic creations.


 Cover of A fenster tsu der velt

Sources: A. Lis, Nay-velt (Tel Aviv( (July 21, 1950); Dr. L. Zhitlovski, Ikuf (Buenos Aires) (March-April 1948); Sh. Kants, in Nidershlezye (July 1949), pp. 40-41; Z. Natan, in Bafrayung (Lodz) (June 20, 1948); Sh. Lastik, in Yidishe shriftn 3 (1949).

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 83-84.]

MAKS BINENSHTOK (MAX BIENENSTOCK)

MAKS BINENSHTOK (MAX BIENENSTOCK) (March 24, 1881-March 20, 1923)
Born in Tarnów, Eastern Galicia, from his student years he was an active Zionist.  He worked as a high school teacher, putting up with the persecutions of the Polish authorities for his Zionist convictions and his pro-Ukrainian sentiment (1919).  He contributed to Polish and German periodicals.  In Yiddish he published in Lemberger tageblat (Lemberg daily news) and the anthology Ringen (Links).  After his death, an article of his was published: “Tsvey tekufes in der yid. literatur, pruv fun a sintez” (Two eras in Yiddish literature, evidence from a synthesis), Milgroym (Pomegranate), issue no. 6; and in Polish he wrote articles concerning modern trends in Yiddish literature and concerning Moyshe Broderzon.  Prior to his death, he was elected to the Polish Senate.



Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon , vol. 1; Dr. Y. Tenenboym, Galitsye, mayn alte heym (Galicia, my old country) (Buenos Aires, 1952); Gershom Bader, Medina veḥakhameha (The state and its sages) (New York, 1934); Dov Sadan, Avne zikaron (Milestones) (Tel Aviv, 1953/1954); Tarne (Tarnów) (Tel Aviv, 1954); Dr. maks binenshtok, a zamlshrift vegn zayn lebn un shafn (Dr. Maks Binenshtok, a collection of writings concerning his life and work) (Lemberg, 1924).


SHLOYME BINDER

SHLOYME BINDER (1904-1943)
Born in Baltremantaz (Butrimonys), Lithuania, he received both a Jewish and a general education.  He was a student in Kovno University, and he was a leader in the Zionist movement.  Until 1941 he was living in Kovno, later in the Vilna ghetto where he was an official in the Jewish management committee.  In the 1920s he was a contributor to Folks-blat (People’s newspaper), later to Yidishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) in Kovno.  In the Vilna ghetto he published in the weekly news-bulletin Geto-yidies (Ghetto news) (Vilna, 1942-1943).  At the end of 1943 he was sent to the Ülenurme Camp near Dorpat (Tartu), Estonia, and there he died.

Sources: Sh. Katsherginski, Khurbn vilne (The Holocaust in Vilna) (New York, 1947); A. V. Yasny, in Dos naye lebn (Warsaw) 311 (1949).


Sunday 25 January 2015

ZALKIND BINDER

ZALKIND BINDER

Born in Zakrowe (?), Poland, he published poems and short stories in the publications of Agudas Yisroel (Union of Orthodox rabbis) in Poland.  He died in the Holocaust.

FISHL BIMKO

FISHL BIMKO (December 28, 1890-April 7, 1965)
     Born in Kielce, Poland, he came from a family of Hassidic rabbis and merchants.  His father, Yitskhok, was a Hassid, a speculative thinker, and an impoverished grocer.  His mother, Khane, was from a family of children’s teachers, in Włoszczowa, and she helped out in the store.  Bimko studied in religious primary school and in the synagogue study hall.  At roughly age fifteen, he was captivated by the revolutionary movement, arrested, and spent six months in jail in KielceIn 1909 he lived for a short while as a political emigrant in Cracow, and thereafter he returned to Kielce and devoted himself to business.  In 1917 he was arrested during the German occupation and spent a short time in the Warsaw Citadel.  He began writing at age twelve.  His first publication—a story entitled “A mayl vegs” (A mile’s journey)—appeared in a Lemberg newspaper.  In the Sukkot issue for 1909 of Lodzher tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper), he published a short story: “Dos land fun libe un umshuld” (The land of love and innocence).  From that point he published in the Lodz Yiddish press a series of sketches and stories concerned with the living conditions of Jews.  In a deeply authentic, juicy, Polish Yiddish, he described the lives of Jews in towns during WWI.  A portion of this work had an autobiographical character to it.  Influenced by the events of WWI, he wrote up a mystery in light verse entitled “Frok” (Frock coat).  In 1912 he published his first book, Di aveyre (The transgression) (Lodz), 32 pp.  Bimko brought over to drama and later to comedy his native language, his flair for dialogue, and his realistic, dramatic description.  In 1914, his play Afn breg vaysl (On the shore of the Vistula) was staged in Lodz by Julius Adler and Herman Serotsky.  From that point, his dramatic pieces were all staged by the best theatrical companies, such as the Vilna Troupe, Maurice Schwartz’s Art Theater, Ben-Tsvi Baratov in Vienna, the Skala Theater in Lodz, Zigmunt Weintraub, Y. Sheyngold, Fraye yidishe folksbine in New York, and in Hebrew translation in Palestine.  His plays were exceedingly popular in the Polish hinterland where virtually every Jewish community had a drama circle in the years between the two world wars.  In 1916, his first important prose work, Rekrutn (Recruits), was published in Warsaw, 127 pp., and it drew attention to its new subject matter and its robustly realistic writing.  Later, his drama Ganovim (Thieves) made a huge impression; it was staged almost everywhere that Yiddish theater existed.  The realism of the types in the Jewish underworld with the distinctive Yiddish language of thieves was something new for the Yiddish stage.  In 1921 Bimko emigrated to the United States and worked for a number of years in a sweatshop as a stitcher of boots.  In 1929 he wrote a long story on an American theme: Ist-sayd (East Side), 131 pp. (reprinted in his selected writings).  From then on, he published stories in: Tsukunft (Future), Di tsayt (The times), Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor), Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal), Tog (Day), Amerikaner (American), and Zamlbikher (Anthologies) edited by Yoysef Opatoshu and H. Leivick, among others.  In 1938 he received a literary prize from Ikuf (Jewish Cultural Association).
     Among his books in addition to the earlier mentioned Di aveyre and Rekrutn (second printing, Warsaw, 1921, 156 pp.): Ganovim, drame in dray aktn, tsugegebn a verter-fartseykhenish fun ganovim-shprakh (Thieves, a drama in three acts, with the addition of a word list of thieves’ parlance) (Warsaw, 1919), 62 pp.; S’letste vort, stsenisher monolog (The last word, a staged monologue) (Warsaw, 1919), 16 pp.; Di intrige, tragi-komedye in 3 aktn (The intrigue, a tragi-comedy in three acts) (Warsaw, 1920), 56 pp.; Afn breg vaysl, drame in 3 aktn (On the shore of the Vistula, a drama in three acts) (Warsaw, 1921), 123 pp.; Fun krig un fun fridn (From war and from peace), stories (Warsaw, 1920; second printing, 1921), 156 pp.; Farborgene koykhes, drame in 3 aktn (Hidden strength, a drama in three acts) (Warsaw, 1921), 116 pp.; Hele blikn (Light glances) (New York, 1926), 219 pp.; Tunkele geshtaltn (Dark images) (New York, 1926), 270 pp.; Goldene tsoytn (Golden tufts of hair) (New York, 1926), 302 pp.  In Warsaw in 1921, a volume of his plays appeared which included: Ganovim, Farborgene koykhes, and Afn breg vaysl.  In 1936 the publishing house Tseshinski in Chicago published Binko’s seven-volume Geklibene verk (Collected writings) which included twenty theatrical pieces: dramas, comedies, tragedies, one-acters, and monologues. for a total of 2,362 pages; volume 8 subtitled “In der heykh un in der nider” (Above and below) was comprised of stories and was published by “F. Bimko farlag” (F. Bimko publishers) (New York, 1941), 283 pp.; volume 9, “Kelts” (Kielce), stories, appeared from the same publishing house (New York, 1947), 287 pp.; volume 10, also called “Kelts,” was short novels (New York, 1947), 259 pp.  Also, in 1954 (New York) he published: Dos geveyn fun blut (The lament of blood), a three-act drama, 160 pp.  In 1967, Afn veg tsum lebn (On the road to life) (New York: CYCO, 1967) was published posthumously in five volumes.
     In 1950, Bimko established in the name of his tragically murdered wife, Lyonye, an annual literary prize distributed by the World Congress for Jewish Culture. In 1952 he established a second Lyonye Bimko Prize for the best story in the journal, Di goldene keyt (The golden chain), in Israel.  He was living in New York.


Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater, vol. 1; L. Finkelshteyn, Dortn un do (There and here) (Toronto, 1950); A. Bekerman, F. bimko, der dramaturg un realist (F. Bimko, the playwright and realist) (New York, 1944); Sh. Perlmuter, Yidishe dramaturgn un teater-kompozitors (Jewish playwrights and theatrical composers) (New York, 1952); Dr. A. Mukdoni, “Di emigrantishe drame” (The emigrant drama), Yorbukh fun amopteyl 1 (New York, 1938); Mukdoni, “Teater” (Theater), Tsukunft (New York (May-June 1955); Y. Botoshanski, Pshat (Literally) (Buenos Aires, 1951); Dr. Michael Weichert, in Teater un drame 1 (Vilna, 1926); Sh. Y. Stupnitski, in Lubliner togblat (1917); Y. Entin, in Tsayt (New York) (November 16, 1920); Entin, in Yidisher kemfer (New York) (October 31, 1941); Y. Y. Sigal, in Keneder odler (May 31, 1948); Dr. Y. Shatzky, in Poylishe yidn (Polish Jews) (1937), pp. 23-28; Yankev Glatshteyn, in Yidisher kemfer (1955); Y. Shatzsky, “F. Bimko,” in Enciclopedia dello spettacolo (Encyclopedia of performance) (Rome, 1955), vol. 1 (in Italian); Shmuel Niger, in Tsukunft (December 1926); Niger, in Tog (July 12, 1941; October 25, 1941); A. Gordin, Yidish lebn in amerike, in shpigl dun f. bimkos verk (Jewish life in America, in light of the work of F. Bimko) (Buenos Aires, 1957), 341 pp..
Zaynvil Diamant


[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 83.]

Friday 23 January 2015

MORTKHE BILSKI

MORTKHE BILSKI
He was the author of More hadikduk, oder der dikduk lerer (A guide to grammar, or the grammar teacher) (Berdichev: Khayim Yankev Sheftil, 1904).

YONOSN-BINYUMIN BILLITSER

YONOSN-BINYUMIN BILLITSER
Together with Moyshe-Tsvi Kahane, he published in 1909 a weekly newspaper in Siget-Marmoresh, Hungary, entitled Yidishe tsaytung (Yiddish newspaper), “organ of Jewish confessional interests, business, and literature.”

Source: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1


SHLOYME BILOV

SHLOYME BILOV (1888-1949)

A literary scholar and educator, he was born in Brisk (Brześć), Lithuania. His difficult childhood years led him into the socialist movement.  In 1905 he joined the Bund.  In 1907 he emigrated to the United States where he worked hard by day and studied on his own by night.  In 1912 he graduated from a secondary school and entered Kingston College (Rhode Island) where he studied languages, literature, and philosophy.  Following the February Revolution in Russia (1917), he was returning to Russia; en route, though, he was stuck for one year in Norway where he studied Scandinavian languages and literature.  In 1918 he arrived back in Rovno (Rovnoye), western Ukraine, and became a manager of a Jewish night school and a leader in the Bundist organization.  In 1919, he became the manager of the Jewish section of the Rovno Commissariat for People’s Education.  He was arrested by the Polish authorities the next year, 1920, during the Polish occupation, and after being freed he settled in the nearby city of Kovel where he switched to the Jewish Communist Labor Bund (Kombund).  When the Red Army withdrew from the city, he moved on to Kiev and from there to Homel and Novozybkov, where he switched (together with the local organization of the Kombund) to the Communist Party.  From his return to Russia until the liquidation of Yiddish cultural work in Soviet Russia, Bilov was active as a school manager, lecturer, and teacher—mainly in Yiddish language and literature.  In the early 1920s, he was a teacher in the pedagogical institutes in Novozybkov and Homel where he also undertook research on historical materialism in the Homel Jewish Party School.  Over the years 1924-1926, he held the chair in Yiddish language and literature at the Odessa Institute for People’s Education.  In 1930 he held a similar position in Kiev.  From 1932, he was a professor in the Kiev Institute for Jewish Proletarian Culture and professor at the Linetski Theatrical Institute—where he lectured on Western European and Jewish literature and the history of painting.  In addition to Yiddish, Russian, and Hebrew, Bilov also wrote in English, Norwegian, and Swedish; and he was the author of over 200 scholarly, critical works on questions of literature and art.

He began writing (in English) in 1914 in the American socialist weekly newspaper Labor Advocate (in Providence, Rhode Island).  In 1923 he contributed to the Homel Komsomol (Communist Youth) weekly Nabat molodyozhi (Alarm for youth) in Russian and to the Yiddish magazine, Der komunistisher veg (The Communist way).  In 1924 he edited a pioneering weekly newspaper Iskry ilyicha (Ilyich’s sparks) and was a contributor to the magazine (later, a newspaper) Der odeser arbeter (The Odessa laborer).  Bilov was a member of the association of proletarian writers (1928-1930), secretary of the Jewish division the writers’ association in Odessa, and a councilman on the Odessa city council (1929).  Later, as a scholarly contributor to the literature section of the Institute of Jewish Culture, he devoted his time to researching the creative work of Avrom Goldfaden, Moyshe Nadir, and Dovid Edelshtadt, and at the same time he played a significant role in preparing a full array of Yiddish actors, while working as a professor in the Jewish division of Kiev’s Linetski Theatrical Institute. Together with a group of others scholars from the Institute of Jewish Culture, he was arrested as an “enemy of the people,” but soon was released miraculously and thus evading the tragic fate of his colleagues. At the start of WWII, he was evacuated to Sverdlovsk, worked as a correspondent for the “Sovinformbyuro” (Soviet Information Bureau), and served on the Jewish Anti-fascist Committee. In 1945 he took up his work again at the Theatrical Institute in Kiev, but he was frequently summoned to exhausting “discussions” with security organs. After a short-term arrest and unpleasant interrogation, he became paralyzed. He died in Kiev, possibly of a stroke.

From his large body of work: “Kegn mekhanitsizm in der litforshung” (Against mechanism in literary research), in the collection, Farn leninishn etop in der literatur-kritik (Toward the Leninist stage in literary criticism) (Kharkov-Kiev, 1932), pp. 125-42; Literatur-frages bay marksn un engelsn, etyudn (Literary questions in Marx and Engels, studies) (Kiev, 1934), 34 pp.; “Fefer in shpigl fun der kritik” (Fefer in light of criticism), in the collection for Itzig Fefer (Kiev, 1934); “Edelshtadts dikhterisher veg” (Edelshtadt’s poetic way), in Dovid edelshtadts geklibene verk (Dovid Edelshtadt’s selected writings), vol. 2, compiled by Kalmen-Tsvi Marmor (Moscow, 1935), pp. 7-60; introduction and notes to Moyshe Nadir selected writings (Kiev-Kharkov, 1937), 404 pp.; Sholem-aleykhem (with Irme Druker) (Kiev, 1939), 183 pp., which also appeared in Russian; Avrom Goldfadn, Geklibene dramatishe verk (Selected dramatical writings), introduction by Bilov and Avrom Velednitski (Kiev, 1940), 328 pp.; “Sholem-aleykhem,” Sovetishe literatur (Soviet literature) 6 (1938), pp. 142-58.

Sources: The Fefer collection appeared in Literatur un revolutsye 1-2 (Kiev, 1934), see pp. 142, 144, 149, 151; launch session of the section on literature and criticism, Odeser arbeter (April 28, 1934); Dr. Y. Shatzky, review of Bilov’s Goldfadn book, in Yivo-bleter no. 20, pp. 109-12; “A groyser oyftu in antviklen di yidishe kultur un visnshaft” (A great feat in developing Jewish culture and science), Eynikeyt (Moscow) (April 2, 1946); “Dray disertatsyes” (Three dissertations), Eynikeyt (February 18, 1947); H. Vaynraykh, Blut af der zun (Blood on the sun) (Brooklyn, 1950), p. 48); Aleksander Pomerants, “Edelshtat un der yidish-sovetisher literatur-kritik” (Edelshtat and Soviet Jewish literary criticism), in Dovid edelshtat gedenk-bukh (Dovid Edelshtat memorial volume) (New York, 1952), pp. 530, 549, 553, 554.

Aleksander Pomerants and Leyzer Ran

[Additional information from: Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), pp. 45-46.]