SHMUEL KHAZAN

SHMUEL KHAZAN (1901-1942)

            He was born in Lutsk, Volhynia, into a family of ritual slaughterers.  He studied in religious elementary school and yeshivas, and later as an external student he graduated from high school.  He was thereafter an instructor at the central craftsmen’s association in Poland for Volhynia.  He was secretary for Lutsk’s Tsentos (Society for the Support of Children and Orphans) and ORT (Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades), and vice-president of the sports club Ḥashmonai.  He was member of the Lutsk city council.  He was a cofounder (with Dovid Sfard and Zalmen Elbirt) of the young writers’ group in Volhynia and the group’s organ, Shprotsungen (Young sprouts), in Warsaw (1924-1927).  He published correspondence pieces from Volhynia in Moment (Moment) (1923-1939) and Radyo (Radio)—both in Warsaw.  He was editor of and contributor to the weekly newspapers Volin (Volhynia) (1926-1927) and Voliner prese (Volhynian press) (1928-1939); he also placed work in Voliner vokh (Volhynian week), Unzer shtime (Our voice) in Chełm, and other provincial newspapers in Poland.  In a jubilee issue of Voliner prese (Lutsk, 1938), he published a piece entitled “Geshikhte fun der yidisher prese in loytsk” (History of the Yiddish press in Lutsk).  He also wrote under the pen names: Sh. Zeylikzon, Dr. Y. Mininzon, Sh. Natkin, Informator, Sh. Pan, Sh. Kh., and the like.  He was murdered during the massacre of Lutsk Jews in the winter of 1942.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), see index; Y. Shternfeld, in Voliner prese (Volhynia), jubilee issue (1938), p. 117; Sefer lutsk (Lutsk volume) (Tel Aviv, 1961), see index.

Khayim Leyb Fuks