ABE FINKELSHTEYN

ABE FINKELSHTEYN (1898-1978)

            He was a Soviet bibliographer and publisher, born in the town of Stupenits, Kiev district, Ukraine. In 1922 he came to Moscow to work for the management committee of the principal Soviet Yiddish newspaper, Der emes (The truth), and from that time he was always linked with Yiddish publishing and book distribution. He took an active part in organizing book sales in Moscow and Minsk. He was until 1940 the Moscow representative of Emes publishing house, and after WWII he was the manager of Emes publishers and the newspaper Eynikeyt (Unity). From the 1930s he was also involved in publishing bibliographies and statistical bibliographical materials in the Minsk-based journal Shtern (Star), the Moscow almanacs Sovetish (Soviet) and Heymland (Homeland), and later Sovetish heymland (Soviet homeland). In book form: Di bikher produktsye funem farlag “emes” farn tsveytn finfyor 1933-1937 (Book production from the publisher Emes before the second Five-Year Plan, 1933-1937) (Moscow, 1938), 427 pp.; Di yidishe bikher-produktsye funem ukrayinishe-natsyonale-melukhe-farlag farn tsveytn finfyor 1933-1937 (The Yiddish book production of the Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities prior to the second Five-Year Plan, 1933-1937), in figures (Minsk, 1939), 91 pp.; Byuleten fun “emes”-farlag (Bulletin of the publisher Emes [Truth]), with Abe Lev, for the second and third quarter of the year 1934 (Moscow) 3 (1935), 32 pp. He also published bibliographic works in: Sovetish 7-8 (1938), 9-10 (1939); Sovetish heymland 3 and 4 (1964). He died in Moscow.

Sources: Kh. Nadel, in Eynikeyt (Moscow) (July 5, 1947); Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1962), see index.

Benyomen Elis

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 442; and 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), p. 294.]