AVROM KAZAKEVITSH

AVROM KAZAKEVITSH (1880-1960)

            A journalist who wrote under such pen names as A. Shneyfal and A. Hindes, he was born in Novozybkov, Bryansk (Brańsk) region. He received a traditional Jewish education and studied as well in a senior high school. He lived in Odessa, Vilna, Berdichev, and St. Petersburg. He began writing in Hebrew, but soon switched to Yiddish. In 1905 he emigrated to the United States, lived in New York, and wrote feature pieces and sketches for Forverts (Forward). For other Yiddish publications, he wrote articles on politics, theater, and literature. For two years he was assistant editor of the journal Tsukunft (Future). In 1908 he returned to the Russia empire, settled in Warsaw, and worked for the newspaper Fraynd (Friend) and other publications. Beginning in 1925 he became a contributor to the Kharkov newspaper Der shtern (The star), publishing features, jottings, reviews, memoirs, and mostly under the pseudonym A. Hindes. He was assigned his first literary work to edit, Volf Rabinovitsh’s Mayn bruder sholem-aleykhem (My brother Sholem-Aleichem) (1929), which opens with Kazakevitsh’s introduction (using the name A. Hindes). During WWII, he lived in Dagestan, and later Chuvashia and southern Kazakhstan. From 1945 he was a contributor to Eynikeyt (Unity) in Moscow. After Eynikeyt was liquidated in 1948, he settled in Fastov (Fastiv), near Kiev, from whence he wrote nothing further. His writings include: Tomer iz dos a got? (Suddenly is this a God?), feature pieces (Kharkov: Central Publishers, 1929), 16 pp.; In roysh fun tog, felyetonen (In the roar of the day, features) (Kharkov: Literatur un kunst, 1931), 269 pp.; Ot dos heyst blof, komedye in eyn akt (That’s what’s called a hoax, a comedy in one act) (Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1937), 13 pp.; Felyetonen un fartseykhenungen (Features and jottings) (Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1939), 267 pp.; Praskovya gusyatnikova, deputat fun oyberrat fun fssr (Praskovya Gusyatnikova, deputy from the supreme council of the USSR) (Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1939), 24 pp.

Source: Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index.

[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. 311.]