DOVID KESHIR

DOVID KESHIR (1903-1970)

            He was born in Zavyertshe (Zawiercie), Poland.  He came to the United States in 1920.  He was a teacher and worker in the food business.  He was part of the leftist movement, and in his last years he broke with it and became a teacher in Workmen’s Circle schools.  In 1931 he debuted in print with a sketch in Frayhayt (Freedom).  He wrote poems and mostly stories.  He published in: Hamer (Hammer), Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture), and other primarily leftist publications.  His work also appeared in: 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).  In book form: Tsvishn vent (Between walls), stories (New York: “Signal,” “Proletpen,” 1939), 156 pp.

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), p. 238; Y. Glants, in Der veg (Mexico City) (March 11, 1939); Zayn (New York) (December 1970); Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Sh. Apter