SHLOYME KIVIN

SHLOYME KIVIN (b. June 12, 1886)

            He was a journalist and community leader, born Shloyme-Khayim Kapelushnik in the town of Tsheray (Chereya), Mogilev Province, Byelorussia, into a Hassidic family. He studied in religious elementary school, later graduating from a high school in Vitebsk as an external student. From his early youth he was involved in the revolutionary movement, later becoming one of the leading forces in Labor Zionism, especially its left wing, in Russia. In late 1915 he settled in Moscow. His journalistic work concentrated on Party theoretical issues. He wrote for Dos yudishe arbayter vort (The Jewish worker’s word) (1906) and edited the collections (1911-1912) Di tsayt (The times), Der gedank (The idea), and Unzer tsayt (Our time). After the Revolution, from 1917 he was the editor of record of the journal: Der proletarisher gedank (The proletarian idea) (Kiev-Moscow, 1920-1927), organ of Labor Zionist party, which also appeared in Russian (1919-1926). Its last issue (no. 49-50) appeared in December 1927 and was dedicated to the ten-year jubilee of the October Revolution. That very year, all information about Kivin cuts off. According to certain sources, he was purged and arrested in 1938 and died in a Soviet camp. He published the pamphlet: Der arbeter-klas un di arbeter-bavegung in palestine (The working class and the labor movement in Palestine), unseen; and several works on Party history in Russian. His pen names include: S. A., A. A. N. D., and Solomon.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index; Zeev Blum, “Poyle-tsien” in ratnfarband, zikhroynes, gedanken un dokumentn (The labor Zionists in the Soviet Union, memoirs, ideas, and documents) (Tel Aviv, 1978), pp. 6, 16, 20ff.

Berl Cohen

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 483; 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. 334-35.]