KHAYIM-SHLOYME KAZDAN

KHAYIM-SHLOYME KAZDAN (Passover [April] 1883-September 15, 1979)

            He was born in Kherson, Russian empire.  He studied in religious elementary school, with Hebrew tutors, and as an external student.  From 1902 he was involved with school work in Kherson, Nikolaev, Marianpol, and elsewhere.  He was one of the first to introduce the subject of Yiddish into the Russian Jewish school.  In 1901 he was at the professional girls’ school in Kherson.  In mid-1918 he was one of the leaders of the “Kultur-lige” (Culture league) in Kiev and later in Poland, where he moved in late 1920 and became one of the principal figures in Tsisho (Central Jewish School Organization) and where he was linked to various activities of the Bund’s central committee.  In 1939 he fled Poland and after lengthy wandering reached the United States in 1941.  For many years he was a lecturer on Yiddish literature and language instruction at New York’s Jewish Teachers’ Seminary.  He debuted in print in 1906 in the Bundist Hofenung (Hope) in Vilna with an article on the English labor movement.  From 1911 Kazdan’s literary activity was tied to his pedagogical work.  He published articles on school-related issues, children’s literature, and methods for teaching Yiddish, but he also wrote a great deal on Yiddish literature and in his final years published full monographs on Yiddish writers.  His work appeared in: Di yudishe velt (The Jewish world), Bikher-velt (Book world) in Kiev, the daily Folks-tsaytung (People’s newspaper), Arbayter-luekh (Workers’ calendar) in 1922, Di vokh (The week), Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Unzer tsayt (Our time) in Warsaw and New York), Foroys (Onward) in Warsaw and Mexico City, Di naye shul (The new school), Shul un lebn (School and life) in Warsaw, and A. Litvak’s Bleter (Sheets), among others.  He co-edited: the first Yiddish-language pedagogical journal Shul un lebn (Kiev, 1918-1920); Vokhnshrift far literatur (Weekly writing for literature); Bikher-velt (Kiev); Mentshn fun arbet, khrestomatye (Men of labor, a reader) (Warsaw: Kultur-lige, 1930s), 174 pp.; Yidish farn fertn lernyor (Yiddish for the fourth year in school) (Warsaw, 1937), 204 pp.; Baym kval, literarishe zamlung far der yidisher shul (At the source, literary anthology for the Jewish school), with Z. Yefroykin (New York: Workmen’s Circle, 1948), 110 pp.; Di geshikhte fun bund (The history of the Bund) (New York: Unzer tsayt, 1960-1972), 4 vols.  He edited: Lerer-yizker-bukh, di umgekumene lerer fun tsisho-shuln in poyln (Remembrance volume for teachers, the murdered teachers in Tsisho schools in Poland) (New York, 1954), 566 pp.; Medem sanatorye-bukh (Volume for the Medem Sanatorium) (Tel Aviv, 1971), 459 pp.  He published a long introduction (153 pp,) to A. Litvak’s Geklibene shriftn (Selected writings) (New York, 1945) and one (500 pp.) to Tsvien’s Far fuftsik yor, geklibene shriftn (Fifty years ago, selected writings) (New York: A. Laub, 1948).  He contributed to translating two volumes of Shimen Dubnov’s ten-volume history into Yiddish.  His own work includes: Far shul un heym, zamlungen fun musterverk af shtudirn di yidishe literatur in klas un in der heym (For school and home, anthologies of sample writings to study Yiddish literature in the classroom and in the home) (Kiev, 1918-1921; republished in Bialystok and Warsaw, 1921), 3 vols.; Di geshikhte fun robinzon kruzo (The story of Robinson Crusoe), with Y. Pat (after Daniel Defoe); Gedikhten un dertseylungen (Poems and stories), by various writers (Warsaw, 1920s), 69 pp. + 101 pp.; Far unzere kinder, beveglekhe khrestomatye, ershte zamlung (For our children, movable reader, first collection) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1920), 40 pp., second edition (Kiev: State Publ., 1921); Mayn yidish bukh (My Yiddish book), with Y. Pat (Warsaw: Kultur-lige, 1926-1930), 2 parts; In di teg fun revolutsye, 1917-1918 in eyner a shtot (In the days of revolution, 1917-1918 in a certain city) (Warsaw: Kh. Bzozha, 1928), 111 pp.; Avrom reyzen, der dikhter, shriftshteler un kultur-tuer, zayn lebn un shafn (Avrom Reyzen, the poet, writer, and cultural leader, his life and work) (Warsaw: Kultur-lige, 1936), 16 pp.; Yoysef leshtshinski (khmorner), zayn lebn, shafn un kamf (Yoysef Leshtshinski [Khmorner], his life, work, anmd struggle) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1937), 83 pp.; Metodik fun yidisher shprakh un literatur (A Yiddish language and literature curriculum) (Warsaw, 1939), 230 pp., second edition (Buenos Aires, 1950), 348 pp.; Di geshikhte fun yidishn shulvezn in umophengikn poyln (The history of the Jewish school movement in Independent Poland) (Mexico City: Kultur un hilf, 1947), 571 pp.; Fun kheyder un “shkoles” biz tsisho (From religious elementary school and secular schools to Tsisho) (Mexico City, 1956), 455 pp.; Mentshn fun gayst un mut, bundishe geshtaltn (Men of spirit and courage, Bundist figures) (Buenos Aires: Yidbukh, 1962), 389 pp.; Der kinstler un dertseyler mendl man, esey (The artist and storyteller Mendl Man, an essay) (Paris: Unzer kiem, 1964), 92 pp.; Sholem ash (Sholem Asch), essays (New York: Tsiko, 1966), 119 pp.; Itsik manger (Itzik Manger) (New York: Tsiko, 1968), 164 pp.; Moyshe knapheys (Moyshe Knaphays) (Buenos Aires: Yidish land, 1972), 160 pp.; Di letste tekufe in itsik mangers lebn un shafn (The last period of Itzik Manger’s life and work) (Mexico City: Kultur un hilf, 1977), 166 pp.; Zusman segalovitsh, a monografye (Zusman Segalovitsh, a monograph) (New York: Unzer tsayt, 1979), 151 pp.  He also published a series of pamphlets, among them: A shul af yidish oder af poylish (A school in Yiddish or in Polish) (Warsaw, 1926), 21 pp.; Program fun yidish-limed in der zibeter-klasiker folkshul, proyekt (A program for Yiddish in a seven-class public school, project) (Warsaw, 1926), 30 pp.  Among his pen names: S. Kan, Kh.Sh.K., S. K.  Kazdan deserves considerable merit for the theoretical and methodological foundations of the Jewish school and for its practical construction.  His books on Jewish education in Tsarist Russia and Poland were written, as noted by Y. Trunk, “with great erudition and knowledge of numerous sources, many of which are now rarities.”  He died in New York.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 2 (Montreal, 1947); Sh. Mendelson, in Bikher-velt (Warsaw) 2 (1922), p. 187 pp.; Shmuel Niger, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (April 5, 1955); A. Mukdoni, in Tsukunft (New York) (November 1956); Y. Trunk, in Unzer tsayt (New York) (December 1956); A. Golomb, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (February 1957); Y. Yeshurin, in Arbeter ring boyer un tuer (Builders and leaders of the Workmen’s Circle) (New York, 1962), p. 327; Di geshikhte fun bund (The history of the Bund) (New York: Unzer tsayt), see index; Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Berl Cohen