NOSN-DOVID KORMAN

NOSN-DOVID KORMAN (December 15, 1901-June 9, 1981)

            A poet, he was born Radom, Poland.  Until age thirteen he studied in religious elementary school.  He learned the trade of hat making and later other professions.  In his youth he was Labor Zionist, later switching to the leftists.  In 1926 he emigrated to Cuba and the following year to Philadelphia.  He debuted in print in 1919 in Radomer vokhnblat (Radom weekly newspaper), edited by L. Malakh.  He went on to publish in: Yugnt fon (Youth banner), Fraye yugnt (Free youth), Morgn frayhayt (Morning freedom), Signal (Signal), Hamer (Hammer), Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture), Zamlungen (Collections), Yisroel shtime (Voice of Israel), and the almanac Havaner lebn (Havana life).  His work also appeared in: D. Kurland and S. Rokhkind’s anthology, Di haynttsaytike proletarishe yidishe dikhtung in amerike (Contemporary proletarian Yiddish poetry in America) (Minsk, 1932); In shotn fun tlies, almanakh fun der yidisher proletarisher literatur in di kapitalistishe lender (In the shadow of the gallows, an almanac of Yiddish proletarian literature in the capitalist countries) (Kharkov-Kiev, 1932); V. Abrams and Kalmen Marmor’s Revolutsyonerer deklamator, zamlung fun lider, poemes, dertseylungen, eynakters, tsum farleyenen, shipln un zingen bay arbeter-farveylung (Revolutionary declamation, collection of songs, poems, stories, [and] one-act plays to read aloud, enact, and sing for workers’ entertainment) (New York, 1933); Y. A. Rontsh, Amerike in der yidisher literatur (America in Yiddish literature) (New York, 1945); and Nakhmen Mayzil, Amerike in yidishn vort (America in the Yiddish word) (New York, 1955).  His book-length works include: Af inzlsher erd, lider (On island terrain, poetry) (Havana: A. Rimski, 1927), 16 pp.—the first book of Yiddish poetry published in Cuba; Barg-aroyf, lider un poemen (Uphill, poetry) (Philadelphia: Fraynt, 1943), 128 pp.; Teg un yorn, lider un poemes (Days and years, poetry) (Tel Aviv, 1970), 247 pp.  He died in Philadelphia.

Sources: Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index; A. Pomerants, in Proletpen (Kiev) (1935); Kalmen Marmor, in Morgn frayhayt (New York) (July 27, 1943); B. Grin, Fun dor tsu dor (From generation to generation) (New York, 1971), pp. 272-77; Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Yekhezkl Lifshits