SHMUEL GOLDE

SHMUEL GOLDE (b. 1900)

            This was the literary name of Shmuel Klets, who was born in Warsaw to Hassidic parents.  Until age seventeen, he studied in a religious elementary school and synagogue study hall, graduating from an evening commercial school and in 1919 from Finkel’s High School.  In 1916 he became active in the community, primarily in the cultural sphere.  He was a co-founder of the Warsaw Jewish public schools.  In 1918 he was a member of the first Jewish school council in Warsaw.  Over the years 1917-1935, he was an active leader of the Jewish Folks-Partey (Folkists) in Poland and one of the best advocates for it.  In 1936 he was a representative member of the Jewish section of the journalists’ syndicate in Warsaw.  He began writing in 1922 for Lubliner nayes (Lublin news).  Later, until 1924, he served as its editor.  In 1924 he settled in Warsaw and became a contributor to Moment (Moment).  In 1927 he switched over to the newly founded Unzer ekspres (Our express).  There he was one of the editors and publicists.  He published articles on economic and political problems, as well as treatises on literature, music, and the plastic arts.  He ran the divisions of “The Political Week” and “From the Artisan’s Life.”  He wrote several novels which were published in Unzer ekspres (1930-1939).  For the same newspaper, he translated novels from Russian, Polish, and German, among them: Vera Katlinskaya’s Di libe fun a komsomolke (The love of a Communist Youth girl).  He contributed to the Polish Jewish newspaper Nasz Przegląd (Our review) in Warsaw, publishing articles on the life of Jewish retailers and artisans.  He also contributed to Peysekh-blat (Passover newspaper) in Warsaw (1939).  Until the outbreak of WWII, he was living in Warsaw.  When the Germans occupied the city afterward, he escaped.  According to various sources, he was killed.

Sources: Dr. R. Fledshuh, Yidisher gezelshaftlekher leksikon (Jewish communal handbook), vol. 1 (Warsaw, 1939); M. Mozes, in the yearbook for Der poylisher yid (New York, 1944); Yidishe shriftn anthology, 1 (Lodz, 1946).