NOKHUM LEVIN

NOKHUM LEVIN (1908-1950)

            He was a literary critic, journalist, and editor, born in Minsk, Byelorussia, into a laboring family. He attended religious elementary school and later a high school; in 1927 he graduated from the Yiddish division of the literature department of the Second Moscow State University. He worked as a teacher of history and literature in Jewish middle schools in Homyel' (Gomel) and Minsk, and later at the theater school of the Moscow Yiddish State Theater, while at the same time contributing to: Oktyabr (October), Shtern (Star), Yunger arbeter (Young worker), and Yunger leninyets (Young Leninist)—in Minsk; Shtern in Kharkov; Birobidzhaner shtern (Birobidzhan star); and other serials. He was an editor and internal contributor to Der emes (The truth) and to the publishing house of “Der emes” in Moscow, for which he edited the works of Soviet Yiddish writers and translated for the press a number of textbooks for Jewish schools, among other items: N. Ribkin, Zamlung ufgabes af geometrye far der mitlshul (Collection of problems in geometry for the middle school); Aleksey I. Gukovski and Orest V. Trakhtenberg, Di epokhe fun feodalizm, lernbukh far der mitlshul (The era of feudalism, textbook for middle school [original: Istoriia epokha feodalizma, uchebnik dli︠a︡ srednei shkoly) (Moscow: Emes, 1934), 347 pp.; A. S. Barkov, Fizishe geografye (Physical geography); and the five-volume Geshikhte fun fss"r (History of the USSR [original: Historiia SSSR]), ed. Anna M. Pankratova (Moscow: Emes, 1941); among other works. Together with Kh. Ayzman, he wrote the pamphlet Gezerd un internatsyonale kinder-dertsiung (Gezerd [All-Union Association for the Agricultural Settlement of Jewish Workers in the USSR] and international children’s education) (Moscow: Central Gezerd Management, 1930), 28 pp.

As a lieutenant he took part in the battles against the Nazis on all fronts—from Moscow to Berlin—and he was decorated with medals and awards. In 1945 and early 1946 he was in the army in the Far East. He was an editor with the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and head of the literature division of the newspaper Eynikeyt (Unity); he published reviews of Yiddish books and of performances of Yiddish theater, and he actively contributed to Jewish cultural life in Moscow. People who knew him personally believed that there was lost in him a genuine prose writer and playwright, but first and foremost he was a brilliant editor. He was treasured as such, even by the likes of Dovid Bergelson whose novel Bayn dnyepr (By the Dnieper) Levin edited. Thereafter, until the liquidation of Yiddish culture, he contributed to Eynikeyt in Moscow and to Emes publishers. For the Moscow Yiddish theater, he translated plays by Molière and Goldoni. Among his other literary translations: Maxim Gorky, Dos lebn fun klim samgin (The life of Klim Sangin [original: Zhizn' Klima Sangina]); and Lion Feuchtwanger, Di mishpokhe openhaym (The family Oppenheim [original: Die Geschwister Oppenheim]).

When the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and the newspaper Eynikeyt were closed down, he worked for a time as an editor at the Moscow publisher “Fizkul'tura i sport” (Physical culture and sport), but he was arrested on September 16, 1949. In response to inquiries from his family about his fate, they received an official document that he had died of heart failure on December 26, 1952. In fact, he was shot on November 23, 1950 in a camp.

Sources: Y. Vitkin, in Oktyabr (Minsk) 76 (1935); A. Roytblat, in Shtern (Kharkov) 279 (1935); T. Gen, in Eynikeyt (Moscow) (October 2, 1945); M. Notovitsh, in Yidishe kultur (New York) (December 1945); N. Mayzil, Dos yidishe shafn un der yidisher arbeter in sovetn-farband (Jewish creation and the Jewish worker in the Soviet Union) (New York, 1959), see index; Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index; information from Y. Emyot in Rochester, New York, and Y. Birnboym and H. Vinokur in New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 348; 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. 217-18.]