BERNARD NOVOGRUDSKI

BERNARD NOVOGRUDSKI (b. 1894)

            The brother of Emanuel Novogrudski, he was born in Warsaw, Poland.  He received both a Jewish and a general education.  He was an active leader in the movement for a Jewish public school in Tsarist times in Warsaw.  For many years he worked as a teacher of arithmetic in Jewish schools, for a time was the administrator of the secular Jewish “great school” in Warsaw, and was a member of the organizing committee for the establishment of the Central Jewish School Organization (Tsisho) in Poland.  He assisted in the compilation of a series of Yiddish textbooks by M. A. Birnboym, Sh. Gilinski, and Dovid Kasel (until 1914).  He was the author of the textbook Elementarish-kurs fun arithmetik (Elementary course in arithmetic), “practical course with many examples and problems, part 1, whole and primary numbers, basis for higher classes in public schools and evening courses for adults” (Warsaw: Naye shul, 1917), 96 pp.  When the Nazis were approaching Warsaw, he left for the Soviet-occupied zone in Poland.  Until late 1940 he was living in Lemberg, later returning to Warsaw.  He was killed by the Nazi murderers.

Sources: M. Anilovitsh and M. Yofe, Shriftn fun psikhologye un pedagogik (Writings on psychology and pedagogy) 1 (Vilna: YIVO, 1933), pp. 486-87; Kh. Sh. Kazdan, Di geshikhte fun yidishn shulvezn in umophengikn poyln (The history of the Jewish school system in independent Poland) (Mexico City, 1947), pp. 69, 74, 87f; information from Emanuel Novogrudok and Sh. Herts in New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks