Y. ZHIV

Y. ZHIV

            He was a Soviet Yiddish scholar and writer.  In the 1920s he was a teacher of economic geography at the Communist University of National Minorities of the West (Mayrevke) in Moscow named for Y. Markhlevski and co-editor of the monthly children’s magazine Pyoner (Pioneer) in Moscow.  He was the author of: Vi azoy mentshn nutsn oys damf?, populere shmuesn (How do people use steam?, popular chats) (Moscow, 1926), 45 pp.; Oytsres fun der erd, populere shmuesn vegn ekonomisher geografye (Treasures of the earth, popular chats about economic geography) (Moscow, 1926), 110 pp.; Ekonomishe geografye, khrestomatye, ershter teyl (Economic geography, reader, part 1) (Moscow: Central Publ., 1928), 258 pp., with A. Brakhman; Khine un ir kamf far umophengikeyt (China and its struggle for independence) (Moscow, 1939), 86 pp.  He translated into Yiddish a work by “Men and Tsvis” entitled Fizik (Physics) (Moscow: Shul un bukh, 1926), 270 pp.; Telegraf un telefon (Telegraph and telephone), by Professor N. A. Yablonkovski (Moscow: Shul un bukh, 1926), 80 pp.  He co-edited with A. Brakhman: Yidn in f. s. s. r. (Jews in the USSR), an atlas of cartograms and diagrams, assembled by a group of students from the Mayrevke, with a forward by M. Frumkin (Ester) (Moscow-Kharkov-Kiev-Minsk, 1930), 134 pp.  Further biographical details remain unknown.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO), vol. 1 (Warsaw, 1928), pp. 129, 349, 351; (Ester Frumkin), forward to the atlas, Yidn in f. s. s. r.

Zaynvl Diamant

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 270.]