SHOYL GUTMAN (SAUL L. GOODMAN)

SHOYL GUTMAN (SAUL L. GOODMAN) (December 1, 1901-January 13, 1999)

            He was born in Borzenov (Boryszewo), near Plotsk, Poland.  He attended religious primary school, yeshiva, and a Russian school.  From 1921 he was living in the United States, where he graduated from middle school.  He studied philosophy at Harvard and Columbia Universities.  In 1928 he graduated from New York’s Jewish Teachers’ Seminary and in 1932 from Boston University.  From 1929 he was working in Workmen’s Circle schools.  More recently, he was director of the schools at the Sholem-Aleykhem Folk Institute in New York.  Over the years 1944-1949, he served as executive secretary of the Territorialists’ Frayland-lige (Freeland League).  Over the years 1950-1978, he was a teacher of Jewish thought and Yiddish literature at Jewish Teachers’ Seminary in New York.  He was also managing editor of Afn shvel (At the threshold) and on the editorial board of Bleter far yidisher dertsiung (Pages for Jewish education).  He published articles on community and pedagogical issues in: Yivo-bleter (Pages from YIVO), Fraye shriftn (Free writings), Yidish (Yiddish), Dos fraye vort (The free word) in London, Kultur un dertsiung (Culture and education), Pedagogisher buletin (Pedagogical bulletin), Afn shvel, Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter) in New York, and other serials as well.  In book form: Traditsye un banayung, eseyen (Traditional and renewal, essays) (New York: Matones, 1967), 375 pp., which was awarded the Kessel Prize; Di andershkeyt fun amerikaner yidntum (The difference of American Judaism) (Tel Aviv: Peretz Publ., 1980), 431 pp., which won the Niger Prize; The Faith of Secular Jews (New York: Ktav Pub. House, 1976), xiii, 301 pp.  He edited the “Yorbikher” (Annuals) of the Sholem-aleykhem folk-institut (Sholem Aleichem Institute) in New York for 1954, 1963, 1965, and 1968; and Der derekh fun sholem aleykhem institute, a historisher iberblik (The path of the Sholem Aleichem Institute, a historical survey) (New York, 1972), 181, 188 pp.  Among his pen names: Sh. Gips, Sh. Branson, Sh. Kh. Lederman.  He died in the Bronx, New York.

Source: Who’s Who in World Jewry (New York, 1955), p. 280; Posher Pen, Yidishkeyt in amerike (Jewishness in America) (New York, 1958), pp. 381-88; Sh. Margoshes, in Tog-morgn zhurnal (New York) (May 7, 1967); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (July 21, 1967); L. Domankevitsh, in Unzer vort (Paris) (January 3, 1970); Y. Glants, in Der veg (Mexico City) (March 1, 1974); S. Liptzin, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (June 10, 1977); A. Lermer, in Tsukunft (New York) (1978).

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 151-52.]