DAN KAPLAN

DAN KAPLAN (1879-November 14, 1952)

            He was a journalist and translator, born in Zelve (Zelwa), Grodno region.  He left for Warsaw, where in 1898 he was arrested for Bundist activity.  In 1900 he arrived in the United States.  He died aboard an airplane.  He began writing for publication with poetry in Khayim Aleksansdrov’s Fraye shtunde (Free hour) and later in Dovid Pinski’s Der arbayter (The worker).  From 1908 he was for many years a contributor to Forverts (Forward) in New York, and for a time editor of its summer edition.  From September 1921 to April 1923, he edited Der veker (The alarm).  He wrote political articles, and theater reviews, and published numerous translations from Russian and English, such as: Andreas Latzko, In di negel fun krieg (In the nail of war [original: Menschen im Krieg (Men at war)]) (New York: Forverts, 1919), 194 pp.; Lev Deïch, A halber yorhundert rusishe revolutsye, erinerungen (A half century of Russian revolution, experiences) (New York, 1923), 152 pp.; Morris Hillquit, Fun marks biz lenin (From Marx to Lenin) (New York, 1923), 128 pp.  A series of his translations that appeared in Forverts—V. Korolenko, Kh. Tosin, A. Domanskaia, A. Averchenko, and Eugene O’Neill, among others—were not published in book form.  He also brought out the pamphlet Frantsisko ferer (Francisco Ferrer) (Warsaw: Groshn-biblyotek, 1931).

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Y. Raykh, in Forverts (New York) (November 19, 1952); Y. Yeshurin, in Arbeter ring boyer un tuer (Builders and leaders of the Workmen’s Circle) (New York, 1962); American Jewish Yearbook (New York, 1952).

Berl Cohen