MOYSHE KATZ

MOYSHE KATZ

            In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, he belonged to the “Lovers of Zion” in Vilna.  He was a Yiddish and Hebrew teacher and writer.  He published stories, impressions, and essays on educational issues in: Haboker or (Morning light) in Warsaw; and Der veker (The alarm) and Hakarmel (The Carmel), edited by R. A. Broydes, in Lemberg (1894); among others.  He was known for the polemic which he carried on with Eliezer Tzvayfl over his essay in Veker: “Muser far ale” (Etiquette for everyone).  He authored: Der karabelnikl, oder farsheydene skhoyre, kurtse interesante artiklen (The Karabelnikl [?], or various wares, short interesting articles) (Vilna, 1898), 62 pp., with a “foreword” which begins: “Behold, just as I am a brand new writer, here goes.”  And, he let go an epigram for a motto:

A piece of writing, let’s say a legend,

One must read right through the end.

Otherwise one will fail to understand

What the author has in mind.

Inside the book were depictions of poor Jewish towns in Lithuania, polemical articles, and translations from Hebrew literature (among them: R. A. Broydes’s “Friling” [Spring]).  In 1922 this short book was published in a second edition in Vilna, where Katz was living at the time (23 Zavalne Street, Apartment 19).

Source: Kh. Liberman, in Yidishe shprakh (New York) (September 1960).

Khayim Leyb Fuks