DOVID RODIN

DOVID RODIN (b. July 31, 1893)

            The pseudonym of Elye Levin, he was born in Brahin, Byelorussia.  From 1911 he was living in the United States.  He studied at the Jewish teachers’ seminary in New York and took pedagogical courses at Philadelphia University.  He served in the Jewish Legion.  He worked as a teacher in Toronto.  From 1955 he was living in Israel.  In 1916 he debuted in print with a poem in Der groyser kundes (The great prankster).  He published stories in verse and poems in: Grininke beymelekh (Little green trees), Shul-khaver (School friend) in Vilna, Kinder zhurnal (Children’s magazine), Kinder tsaytung (Children’s newspaper), Yidishe arbeter velt (Jewish workers’ world) in Chicago, Frayhayt (Freedom), Tog (Day), and Ḥefa (Haifa) for which he also served as co-editor, among other serials.  In book form: Vinkavinkele, mayselekh in gramen (Little niche, stories in verse) (Chicago: Y. Tseshinski, 1931), 61 pp.; Di dray barimer (The three braggarts) (New York: Matones, 1940), 248 pp., English translation by Abraham Burstein as Three Tall-Tale Tellers (New York: Vantage Press, 1952), 102 pp.; Alef avreml (Alef Avreml) (New York: Matones, 1946), 30 pp., Hebrew translation by A. Indelman (1953); Der shmeterling (The butterfly) (Haifa, 1965), 33 pp.; Yung un yinger, lider un mayselekh in gramen (Young and younger, poems and stories in verse) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1970), 173 pp.; A modne meydl fun bruklin (A silly girl from Brooklyn), two stories (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1973), 207 pp.; Amerikana (Americana), poems, stories, legends (Tel Aviv, 1969), 111 pp.  Many of Rodin’s poems and stories were included in textbooks and songbooks for Jewish schools.

Sources: In Rodin’s A modne meydl, there is a full bibliography with biographical notes; Khayim-Shloyme Kazdan, in Shul-pinkes (School records) (Chicago, 1948), pp. 363-64; M. Kroshnik, in Haifa, yorbukh far literatur un kunst (Haifa, yearbook for literature and art) (Haifa, 1963), pp. 27-38; Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Ruvn Goldberg