SORE KAHAN

SORE KAHAN (1885-1942)

            She was a poet and author of stories, born in the village of Maksimovichi, Byelorussia, into the family of an office employee. After graduating from the local Jewish school, she moved to Babruysk and worked there as a manager of the municipal library. From that point in time, she became an active correspondent for the Minsk newspaper Oktyabr (October), in which in 1929 she published her first poems. Later, she also placed poetry and stories in Shtern (Star), also in Minsk. In 1935 she settled in Minsk, where she worked in library acquisitions and also took evening classes in the philology department of the Minsk Pedagogical Institute. In 1941 she was introduced onto the editorial board of Shtern. When the Germans occupied Minsk, she was confined in the ghetto, and she died soon thereafter. She contributed to the literary collection Birebidzhan (Birobidzhan) (Moscow, 1936), Komyug (Communist youth), Sovetishe literatur (Soviet literature), and Farmest (Competition), among others. In April 1941 she read aloud her play Khone khodosh (Khone Khodosh) in Minsk. Her other work includes: In veg (On the road), poetry (Minsk: Byelorussian State Publishers, 1934), 41 pp.; Mayn heymland (My homeland), poetry (Minsk: Byelorussian State Publishers, 1938), 35 pp.; Di ershte premye, a monolog fun an elterer froy (The first prize, a monologue of an older woman) (Minsk: Byelorussian State Publishers, 1938), 15 pp.; Undzere mentshn (Our people), poems (Minsk: Byelorussian State Publishers, 1940), 34 pp.; Der fidler (The fiddler), stories (Minsk: Byelorussian State Publishers, 1941), 174 pp.

Sources: Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1962), see index; Oyfboy (Riga) (May 1941); Eynikeyt (Moscow) (November 1, 1945); Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Leyzer Ran

[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. 310-11.]