MOYSHE SHULSHTEYN (MOSES SCHULSTEIN) (September 15, 1911-1981)
The
author of poetry, stories, and essays, he was born in Koriv (Kurów),
Poland. He attended religious elementary
school, yeshiva, and a Jewish public school.
In 1923 he moved with his parents to Warsaw, and there he worked as a
tailor while studying in evening school classes. In 1937 he settled in Paris and performed a variety
of different kinds of work. At the time
of the German occupation, he hid in a number of cities. He participated in the resistance movement
and spent time in a Gestapo jail in Paris.
He initially joined the Labor Zionists, later becoming an active
Communist. In the late 1950s he left the
leftist camp and became ethnically identified.
He composed poetry, stories, and literary critical articles. He debuted in print in 1927 with poems in Y.
M. Vaysenberg’s Inzer hofinung (Our
hope). At first he wrote for leftist
Yiddish periodicals and newspapers, later for other Yiddish publications: Literarishe tribune (Literary tribune)
in Lodz; Naye prese (New press), Parizer zhurnal (Parisian journal), Parizer shriftn (Parisian writings), Parizer tsaytshrift (Parisian
periodical), Kiem (Existence), and Parizer heftn (Parisian notebooks)—in
Paris; Yidishe kultur (Jewish
culture) in New York; Literarishe bleter
(Literary leaves) in Warsaw; and Di
goldene keyt (The golden chain) in Tel Aviv; among others. He also placed work in: Yizker-bukh tsum ondenk fun 14 umgekumene parizer yidishe shrayber
(Remembrance volume to the memory of fourteen murdered Parisian Yiddish
writers) (Paris: Oyfsnay, 1946); and Parizer almanakh (Parisian almanac)
(Paris, 1972). His writings also
appeared in: Lebn un kamf (Life and
struggle) (Minsk, 1936); Kadia Molodowsky, ed., Lider fun khurbn, t”sh-tsh”h (Poetry from the Holocaust,
1939-1945) (Tel Aviv, 1962); Nakhmen Mayzil, Y. l. perets in der yidisher dikhtung (Y. L. Perets in Yiddish
poetry) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1965); Shmuel Rozhanski, Di froy in der yidisher poezye (Women in Yiddish poetry) (Buenos
Aires, 1966); Yoysef Papyernikov, Yerusholaim
in yidishn lid, antologye (Jerusalem in Yiddish poetry, anthology) (Tel
Aviv: Perets Publ., 1973); Charles Dobzynski, Anthologie de la poésie Yiddish, le miroir d’un people (Anthology
of Yiddish poetry, the mirror of a people) (Paris: Gallimard, 1971); and Hubert
Witt, Der Fiedler vom Getto: Jiddische
Dichtung aus Polen (The fiddler of the ghetto, Yiddish poetry from Poland)
(Leipzig, 1966).
His
books include: Broyt un blay, lider
(Bread and lead, poetry) (Lublin: Nay bukh, 1934), 104 pp., later confiscated
by the police; Dos fayfl in di
berg, karpatn-lider (Whistle in the mountains, Carpathian poems) (Warsaw:
Literarishe bleter, 1936), 32 pp.; Afn
ash fun mayn heym (On the ashes of my home) (Paris: A. B. Tserata, 1945),
30 pp., second edition (London: Naroditski, 1946); A boym tsvishn khurves, lider un poemes (A tree among the ruins,
poetry) (Paris: Oyfsnay, 1947), 290 pp.; Tsvishn
ruinen un rushtovanyes, fun a rayze in poyln (Amid the ruins and
scaffolding, from a trip to Poland) (Paris: Yidishe folks-biblyotek, 1949), 109
pp.; A regnboygn iber grenetsn, lider un
poemes (A rainbow over the frontiers, poetry) (Paris: Yidishe
folks-biblyotek, 1950), 251 pp.; Der nign
fun doyres, dramatishe poeme in nayn bilder (The melody of generations, a
dramatic poem in nine scenes) (Paris: Yidishe folks-biblyotek, 1950), 100 pp.; Geklibene lider (Selected poems)
(Warsaw: Yidish bukh, 1954), 159 pp.; A
leyter tsu der zun, lider un poemes (A ladder to the sun, poetry) (Paris:
Oyfsnay, 1954), 237 pp.; Blumen fun
badoyer, lider un poemes (Flowers of regret, poetry) (Paris: Di goldene
pave, 1959), 260 pp.; Gold un fayer,
mesholim un lider (Gold and fire, fables and poetry) (Paris, 1962), 173
pp.; Baym pinkes fun lublin, dramatisher
khizoyen in a kupe ash (Before the chronicle of Lublin, a dramatic vision
in a pile of ashes) (Paris, 1966), 62 pp.; Iber
di dekher fun pariz, dertseylungen (Over the roofs of Paris, stories) (Tel
Aviv: Yisroel-bukh, 1968), 338 pp.; Geshtaltn
far mayne oygn, eseyen, portretn, dermonungen (Figures before my eyes,
essays, portraits, remembrances) (Paris, 1971), 337 pp.; Der morgnshtern in mayn fenster, lider un poemes (The morning star
in my window, poetry) (Paris, 1974), 248 pp.; A ring in a ring, eseyen un reportazhn (A link in a link, essays
and reportage pieces) (Paris, 1975), 265 pp.; Der orem fun libshaft, lider un poems (The arm of love, poetry)
(Paris, 1977), 310 pp.; Dort vu mayn vig
iz geshṭanen (There where my cradle sits) (Paris, 1982), 352 pp.
In his
first period, Shulshteyn was mainly a poet of the social poem,
poet-revolutionary of workers’ hardship and struggle. Later, after his ideological crisis, he took
notice not solely of the hardship of workers and the sadness of the world, but
also the difficulties of Jews and the sorrow of his people—and his poetry
became full of notes of ethnic grief and rebirth, and without the fetters of
ideology it became lyrical. “Moshe
Shulshteyn,” wrote Dovid Sfard, “was always outstanding for his everyday simplicity
and concrete subject matter. His theme
was a real event which in its poetic transformation took off the elements of
chance and became a general, typical phenomenon, characteristic for its time
and environment…. The ground for
Shulshteyn’s poetry was the Jewish laboring man…and not only the Jewish one.”
“Shulshteyn
is a fine poet,” noted Meylekh Ravitsh, “a natural with inate rhythm, flexible
language, a heart full of sentiment and nostalgia…and in the main—talented, but
because of his identification with the left,…he is scarcely mentioned in general
Yiddish literature and under appreciated, while the leftists dreadfully—though not
comparably—overrate him.”
In the
words of Nakhmen Mayzil: “The great tragedy of Polish Jewry continues to dominate
the poet’s [i.e., Shulshteyn’s] disposition, his thoughts, and fantasy…. This called forth in the poet…new, powerful
poems of rage and sorrow…. [These last
few years] he has developed with his subject matter, with his artistic abundance
and full responsibility into a significant poet.”
Sources: Avrom Shulman, in Oyfboy (Melbourne) (March 1946); Daniel Tsharni (Charney), in Fraye arbeter shtime (New York) (July 2,
1948); Shloyme Lastik, Mitn ponem tsum
morgn (Facing the morning) (Warsaw, 1952), pp. 111-19; Dovid Sfard, Shtudyes un skitsn (Studies and
sketches) (Warsaw: Yidish bukh, 1955), pp. 77-91; Nakhmen Mayzil, Noente un eygene, fun yankev
dinezon biz hirsh glik (Near and one’s own, Yankev Dinezon and Hirsch
Glick) (New York, 1957), pp. 348-61; Meylekh Ravitsh, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (September 10, 1962); Ben-Tsien Goldberg, in
Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York)
(December 12, 1962); Yankev Glatshteyn, Mit mayne fartog-bikher (With my daybreak books) (Tel Aviv, 1963),
pp. 318-25; :Leyzer Domankevitsh, Verter
un vertn (Words and worth) (Tel Aviv: Peretz Publ., 1965), pp. 31-37;
Yisroel Emyot, in Tsukunft (New York)
7 (1967); Rivke Kope, Intim mitn bukh,
mekhabrim, bikher, meynungen (Intimate with a book, authors, books,
opinions) (Paris, 1973).
Berl Cohen
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