ARN KHEYT (AARON CHAIT)

ARN KHEYT (AARON CHAIT) (May 13, 1908-January 1, 1988)

            He was born in Stoybts (Stolbtsy, Stowbtsy), Byelorussia, to a father who was an itinerant elementary school teacher.  He studied in religious primary school, yeshiva, high school, and later graduated from the law faculty of Vilna University.  He began writing activities in youth magazines and from 1931 contributed to the Aguda periodicals Dos vort (The word) in Vilna and Dos yudishe togblat (The Jewish daily newspaper) in Warsaw.  In 1937 he received an award for his work published in the Joint Distribution Committee’s serial Folkshilf (People’s help) in Warsaw.  In 1938 he moved to the United States.  He published poetry, stories, and articles in Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal) in New York, in which he also edited a weekly column entitled “In der velt fun khazonim” (In the world of cantors).  He also was in charge of a spirited section of Der amerikaner (The American) in New York.  He published other items in: Tog (Day), Forverts (Forward), Nyu yorker vokhnblat (New York weekly newspaper), Der id (The Jew), Dos idishe vort (The Jewish word), and Byalistoker shtime (Voice of Bialystok)—all in New York; and Kol yisrael (Voice of Israel) in Tel Aviv.  His books include: Sharfzin, may ka mashma lan, an oytser fun toyre, khokhme, idish un veltlikh visn (Sagacity, what is the meaning of this?, a treasury of Torah, wisdom, Yiddish, and secular knowledge) (New York, 1954), 96 pp.; Reyzele dem shoykhets, novele fun der noenter idisher fargangenhayṭ (Reyzele, the ritual slaughterer’s daughter, a novel of the recent Jewish past) (New York, 1957), 128 pp. and 6 pp.; Yisroel, folk un land fun legendarn emes, ayndrukn fun a bazukh (Israel, people and land of a legendary truth, impressions from a trip) (New York, 1968), 100 pp.; Fun kol tov, opklayb fun gedruktn vort, in shure un in ferz (Of all the best, a selection of published words in verse) (New York, 1970), 102 pp.; Kreyndele, der goyrldiker dor, tsaytlikher roman vegn gerangl fun dem rusishn idntum far frayer aliya tsu medines yisroel (Little crown, the fateful generation, timely novel about the struggle of Russian Jewry for free immigration to the state of Israel) (Tel Aviv, 1978), 140 pp.  He also compiled “Di rod fun khokhme” (The wheel of wisdom), a play in question-and-answer format.  He died in New York.

Sources: Forverts (New York) (April 6, 1956; May 11, 1958); Dov Sadan, in Byalistoker shtime (New York) (September 1956).

Yankev Kahan

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 271.]