MOTL LIBERMAN

MOTL LIBERMAN (b. 1897)

            He was a current events writer and bibliographer, born in Slonim, Byelorussia, into a working-class family. During WWI he moved with his parents to Minsk. He studied in religious elementary school and a state school, and he later worked as a teacher in Jewish schools in various cities of Byelorussia. He worked as a bibliographer and wrote articles on books and writers. From 1925 he was contributing work in the newspaper Oktyabr (October) in Minsk (1925-1941) and placed literary critical essays in the monthly Shtern (Star) also in Minsk (1925-1941); he was also a contributor and editor (1930-1933) of Yunger leninets (Young Leninist) in Minsk, in which he published bibliographical and literary critical work. His work also appeared in: Der emes (The truth) in Moscow; Ratnbildung (Soviet education) in Kharkov (1928-1937); and Der apikoyres (The heretic) in Moscow (1931-1935); among other serials. He authored the pamphlet: Biblyotekn tsu dinst der sotsyalistisher boyung (Libraries in the service of socialist construction) (Minsk: Jewish Section, Byelorussian State Publishers, 1932), 72 pp. Together with H. Zaltsman and Kh. Maltinski, he compiled the reader Literarishe zamlung far kinder-gertner (Literary anthology for kindergarteners) (Minsk, 1936), 126 + 3 pp. There has been no further information about him since the start of WWII.

Sources: B. Nadel, in Ratnbildung (Kharkov) 10-11 (9132); N. Rubinshteyn, Dos yidishe bukh in sovetn-farband 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935 (The Yiddish book in the Soviet Union, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935), see indices; Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index; information from Al. Pomerants in New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks

[Additional information from: Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), pp. 202-3.]