ZALMEN RATMAN (May 15, 1885-1938)
He was a
bibliographer, born in Starobin, Minsk Province, Byelorussia. He studied in religious elementary school
until age twelve, later in a primary school in Slutsk. In his youth he moved to Minsk, working as an
employee in a machine-building factory, while at the same time taking part in
amateur dramatic circles. Beginning in
1916 he was living in Moscow, working in an office and after the Revolution in
the Commissariat of Nationalities. Over
the years 1918-1923, he was in charge of a Yiddish book depot in Moscow, and at
this time he became a passionate bibliographer.
From 1926 he was a correspondent at the bibliographical center at YIVO
in Vilna. On the tenth anniversary of
the Revolution, he compiled “Reshime fun di idishe bikher un zhurnaln” (Listing
of the Yiddish books and journals) which was published in the Soviet Union for
the year 1927 in Af di vegn tsu der nayer
shul (En route to the new school) 1 (1928), pp. 84-96; and “Dos yidishe
bukh in f. s. r. r. far di yorn 1917-1921” (The Yiddish book in the Federation
of Soviet Socialist Republics for the years 1917-1921), with Yude Kvitni, in Biblyologisher zamlbukh (Bibliological
anthology) 1 (1930), pp. 371-486.
Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications
in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), index.
Berl Cohen
[Additional information from: 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. 353-54.]
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