HILEL (HILLEL) KLIBANOV

HILEL (HILLEL) KLIBANOV (1847-1895)

            A popular wedding entertainer and poet, he was born in Borisov, Minsk Province.  He came from a well-to-do family.  At age eleven he was paralyzed and could only move his right hand a little.  He began writing poetry around 1867, initially about the surrounding life of the streets, later of the “moralistic” sort.  Wedding entertainers used his poems a great deal and often even apprenticed themselves to him.  He was among the most popular people’s poets in Lithuania and Byelorussia.  He also composed plays on biblical topics.  A nephew of his who lived with him usually wrote down for Klibanov his poems, because of his frequent convulsions, he was confined to his bed.  One of his transcribers was the wedding entertainer Avrom Hurvits.  His collections of poems: Rone akore, naye fir lider (Songs of barren women, four new songs) (Vilna: Y. L. Mats, 1883), 31 pp., subsequent editions (1885, 1890, 1894, 1908); Kol khadash, dray naye lider (New voice, three new songs) (Vilna: Y. L. Mats, 1885), 32 pp., later editions (1884, 1908); Di blunde feygil, mit nokh tsvey moralishe lider tsu zingen (The lost bird, with two further moralistic songs to sing) (Vilna: Y. L. Mats, 1889), 32 pp., later editions (1909 and others); Shirim nimim, dray naye prakhtige lider tsu zingen (Lovely songs, three new practical songs to sing) (Vilna: Y. L. Mats, 1889), 31 pp.; Di elinde shulamis, mit nokh tsvey naye lider, der sukhotnik, der mazl tov (The wretched Shulamit, with two additional new songs: The consumptive; The congratulations) (Vilna: Y. L. Mats, 1893), 32 pp., new edition (1908); Der luksus, oder der firung fun hayntige velt, der tog mit di nakht, der nomen id (The luxury, or the way of the contemporary world, the day and the night, the name Jew) (Vilna: Y. L. Mats, 1901), 32 pp.  Biblical plays include: Rivkes hokhtsayt mit unzer foter yitskhok un mit leyzern der pravlayushtse fun unzer foter avromen (Rebecca’s wedding to our father Isaac and with Eliezer the servant of our father Abraham) (Vilna: Y. L. Mats, 1901), 32 pp., later edition (1912); Akeydes yitskhok, herlikhe un interesante lider (The binding of Isaac, splendid and interesting songs) (Vilna: Y. L. Mats, 1901), 32 pp., later edition (1910).  Klibanov’s unpublished poetry may be found in the Byelorussian State Museum in Minsk.  “His typical poetic style of wedding entertainment [in the biblical plays],” wrote Zalmen Reyzen, “here and there elevated the folkish quality of the Purim play.”  There lived in Borisov for a short time someone by the name of Khayimke the Wedding Entertainer—his actual surname was also Klibanov—and he would sing Hillel Klibanov’s songs.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; letters (dated June 26, 1931; October 11, 1954) from M. and Shoyel Hurvits, Brooklyn, which state that their uncle and grandfather knew Klibanov well; Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York); M. Basin, 500 yor yidishe poezye (500 years of Yiddish poetry), vol. 1 (New York, 1917), p. 188.

Berl Cohen