SHMUEL-HELMAN VIGDERSON

SHMUEL-HELMAN VIGDERSON (b. January 4, 1882)

            He was born in Mitave (Mitava), Courland, into a poor family.  He studied in religious elementary school with his grandfather, a teacher and a scribe.  He moved to the United States in 1890, and until age thirteen he studied in religious primary school and in public school, later becoming a worker in a tailor shop.  In those years he joined the socialist movement and was active as a socialist in New York, Boston, and other places.  He took part in the founding of Forverts (Forward).  In 1908 he was the travel agent for Tsukunft (Future) and other socialist publications.  In 1912 he settled in Boston where he assumed an active role in the local Jewish labor movement.  In 1904 he published (under the pen name “Kuntres”) a series of articles in Tsukunft in New York, entitled “Bleter tsu der geshikhte fun der yidisher sotsyalistisher bavegung” (Pages on the history of the Jewish socialist movement).  From that point on, he published articles and memoirs on the history of the Jewish labor movement in America in: Tsukunft, Forverts, Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor) since 1907, and Dos naye vort (The new word) (1917-1921) of which he was chief writer of the editorial articles, Der idisher arbayter (The Jewish worker) (1922-1926), and Unzer tsayt (Our time).  He also published under such pseudonyms as “A Trevler.”  He was living in Dorchester, a suburb of Boston.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO), vol. 1 (Warsaw, 1928), p. 82; Y. Sh. Herts, Di yidishe sotsyalistishe bavegung in amerike (The Jewish socialist movement in America) (New York, 1954), pp. 193, 320; A. Stolar, 15 yor unzer tsayt (Fifteen years of Unzer tsayt) (New York, 1955), p. 31.

Khayim Leyb Fuks