A.
LITVAK (LITWAK) (1874-September 20, 1932)
The pseudonym of Khayim-Yankl
Helfand, he was born in Vilna. About his
origins and childhood, Litvak wrote in an autobiographic note: “My paternal
grandfather was a peddler. He and my
grandmother traveled until they were very old with horse and buggy over the
swamps and forests of Polesia. My
maternal grandfather was a fisherman, and with his boats he plied the rivers of
Lithuania. As far as I can remember, I
have lived in a world of stories of horse and buggy, fishing nets and
boats. In his youth my father was a
wagon driver; later, he worked with a wheelbarrow and spade along the train
line between Vilna and Pinsk.” At age
four Litvak encountered a misfortune. He
was running to take a peek at a wedding, fell down a flight of stairs, and
broke his hipbone. He lay sick in bed
for four years and was left limping for the rest of his life. Until age twelve he studied in religious
elementary school, later attended Rameyle’s yeshiva in Vilna, as well as the
yeshivas of Eyshishok (Eišiškės), Volozhin,
Slonim, and Slutsk. At the same time he read
voluminously and studied Russian. For a
time he was a teacher in rural communities and a preacher in the small
synagogues of craftsmen. In 1893 when he
came to Vilna, he became acquainted with several former fellow yeshiva students
who were now connected with “illegal” sorts.
Before Passover that year, he and a friend, a laborer, went to work in a
matzo-producing plant. Witnessing the
overwhelming need of the women workers in the matzo bakery, Litvak described
their hardship in a leaflet, and he and two friends pasted these leaflets in
synagogue study halls. This leaflet introduced
him to pioneer Jewish socialist circles, from which later emerged the
Bund. At that time, he and his closest
friends (Bobrov, Levinski, and B. Kletskin—the later publisher) established in
Vilna an illegal Jewish library for workers.
At the same time Litvak penned his first literary work in Yiddish. He dubbed it “Tolerants” (Tolerance), but
Mortkhe Spektor, to whom Litvak sent this piece to publish in one of Spektor’s
literary volumes, entitled it “Hert un veyst” (Hear and know) and brought it
out in Der lamtern (The lantern) in
Warsaw (1894). This first published
piece—an adaptation of a midrashic legend—was signed with the pseudonym “Khaye
Zeldes,” whose initials were that of his own name, Khayim-Yankl Helfand,
and that of his mother Zelde. In
the spring of 1894, Litvak was very close to the leader of the socialist
circles Gozhanski and translated for him from Russian a series of articles used
as explanatory material in these circles.
In the winter of 1894-1895, he was back teaching and he then translated
from Russian Sh. An-ski’s “The Story of a Family” which appeared in early 1895
under the title in Yiddish: “Di milkhome farn lebn” (The war for life), with the
translator’s name not given. That year
in Vilna, with help from Dovid Pinski and the Vilna group of Jewish social
democrats, there was established the “Zhargonisher komitet” (Yiddish
committee), whose goal was to publish and disseminate popular scientific and
fictional literature in Yiddish and to found Yiddish libraries in the
provinces. Over the course of the three
years of its existence, this committee published (with the publishing house of
A. Kotik and A. Bresler) eight pamphlets, two of them by Litvak entitled Vinter abenden (Winter evenings),
written under the pseudonym Khaye Zeldes again.
He wrote the first part in the winter of 1895-1896, when he was working
again as a teacher, and he completed the second part in political prison in
Vilna, where he sat from June 1896 until the end of May 1897. He was then extremely active in the nascent
socialist movement, had traveled through a number of towns in which he
organized Jewish workers (his arrest in 1896 took place while he was on an
assignment organizing the tanners in Oshmene [Oszmiana] or Smorgon
[Smarhon]). After spending a year behind
bars, Litvak was exiled administratively to Ekaterinoslav. From there he sent articles for the illegal
Bundist Arbayter-shtime (Voice of
labor), which just then began to appear in print. He was arrested once again in 1900 and in
February 1902 deported to Siberia, and from there he returned in December
1904—and he soon returned to party work.
He wrote for Arbayter-shtime,
whose last issues he composed virtually entirely by himself. In the very last number (40) of the
newspaper, he used his pseudonym A. Litvak for the first time in an article
entitled “Unzere shtrayt-fragn” (Issues in our conflict), about the Bolsheviks
and Mensheviks. From that point on,
Litvak was ever more tied to the Bund in all his activities. In January 1905 he traveled to Warsaw where
he edited the Bundist organ, Der
varshever arbayter (The Warsaw worker), published legally, and in July 1906
he edited in Warsaw the Bundist serial Der
glok (The bell), this time illegally.
Litvak wrote a great deal at the time for the legal organs of the Bund
which were published in Vilna: Der veker
(The alarm) (1905-1906) and Folkstsaytung
(People’s newspaper) (1906-1907). He
occupied a special place in both newspapers, as he was at the time the most
accomplished man of letters in the Bund.
In November 1907 when they attempted to publish Di hofnung (The hope) in Vilna (in place of the now closed down Folkstsaytung), the police arrested all
of the members of the editorial board, among them Litvak, who then spent eight
months in the Lukishker Prison in Vilna.
In 1908 he edited the literary-community weekly Der tog af shabes (Today, on the Sabbath) and a collection Fayerlekh (Little fires) to honor
Hanukkah (published by “Di velt” [The world] in Vilna). Over the years 1908-1911, he contributed to
various anthologies that the Bund was then publishing: Di yudishe velt (The Jewish world) (Vilna, 1908); Tsayt-fragn (Issues of the day) (Vilna,
1910); Di naye tsayt (The new times)
(Vilna, 1910); Di yudishe folksshtime
(The voice of the Jewish people) (Warsaw, 1911); and Fragen fun leben (Questions of life) (St. Petersburg, 1911). Litvak was also on the editorial board of the
weekly Lebens-fragen (Life issues)
(Warsaw, 1912, closed by the authorities after its first issue). He was also a frequent contributor to Fraynd (Friend) in St. Petersburg, and
when the editor of that newspaper, Sh. Rozenfeld, left in 1908 for the United
States, Litvak served as editor for three months. In 1909 he was a delegate from the Bund to
the conference of Jewish representatives in Kovno. When in 1912 the Bund began to publish in St.
Petersburg the weekly Di tsayt (The
times) and a great number of the members of the editorial board were located in
Vienna, Litvak was among the Vienna group on the board. From Vienna, he moved to Switzerland, where
he participated in the activities of the foreign committee of the Bund. With the outbreak of WWI in August 1914, he
decided to move to the United States.
In early April 1915 Litvak arrived
in New York and soon became active in the Jewish socialist movement in
America. He was regular contributor to
the organ of the Jewish Socialist Federation, Di naye velt (The new world), and later one of its editors. He appeared at numerous conferences, gave
lectures throughout the country, and served as a member of the editorial board
of the journal Di tsayt (published by
the Socialist Federation) as well as the anthologies Dos idishe yorbukh (The Jewish yearbook) (New York, 1917) and Dos revolutsyonere rusland
(Revolutionary Russia) (New York, 1917).
After the 1917 Revolution, Litvak returned to Russia, arriving in St.
Petersburg at the time when the Bolsheviks were leading their fight against the
Kerensky government. He was then writing
for the revived organ of the Bund in St. Petersburg, Di arbayter-shtime, and soon (September 1917) he moved to Minsk
where he became a co-editor of the central organ of the Bund, Der veker. He wrote a great deal for the newspaper
(under a variety of pen names) and at the same time traveled through various
cities of Byelorussia and everywhere had the audience spellbound both with his
propaganda speeches and with his lectures on Jewish and general literature. When the Germans occupied Minsk in 1918, he
left for Kiev where he became one of the leaders of the anti-Bolshevik wing of
the Bund. There, he was also active in
“Kultur-lige” (Culture league) and co-edited the monthly Baginen (Dawn) in 1919 and the collection Der royter pinkes (The red records), vol. 1 (Kiev: Kultur-lige,
1920). At this time Litvak’s work Yitskhok-yoyel linyetski, kultur-historishe
shtrikhn fun der haskole-epokhe (Yitskhok-Yoyel Linetski, cultural
historical features of the era of the Jewish Enlightenment) (Kiev, 1919), 55
pp. appeared in print. He also edited the
Bundist social-democratic publications: Di
hofenung (The hope) in Kiev (March 1920); Frayhayt (Freedom), an anthology, in Kiev (1920); and others. When the social-democratic Bundists in April
1920 in Moscow abandoned the twelfth conference of the Bund and established a
special organization entitled “Algemeyner yidisher arbeter bund,
sotsyal-demokrat” (General Jewish labor Bund, social-democrat), Litvak was
selected onto the central committee of it.
After the Bolsheviks closed down Kultur-lige in Kiev, Litvak traveled
through Russia, was arrested in Moscow and then in Minsk, and made his way
eventually to Vilna. The Bundist
movement had by then split apart, and Litvak remained with the
social-democratic Bund. The organization
began then to bring out a weekly entitled Unzer
tsayt (Our time)—the first issue appeared on January 14, 1922—and he served
on its editorial board together with Y. Okun, Y. Kharlash, Rivke Epshteyn, and
Dr. P. Anman-Rozental. When the Polish
authorities closed down the newspaper with its twenty-fourth issue and the
social-democratic Bund brought out in its stead the weekly Unzer gedank (Our idea), Litvak was chief editor. In those years, he would travel between Vilna
and Warsaw. He was among the active
leaders in the Warsaw Kultur-lige, taking a prominent position in Tsisho
(Central Jewish School Organization), and contributing to the Warsaw
collections Der royter pinkes, the
annual Bundist Arbeter-luekh (Workers’
calendar), and other serials. He was
also editor of the journal Kultur
(Culture), published by the Kultur-lige, and a contributor to Bikher-velt (Book world), also a product
of the Kultur-lige; he wrote for the daily Bundist Folkstsaytung, mainly on literary and community cultural matters,
as well as for Literarishe bleter
(Literary leaves) in Warsaw. In 1925 he
again traveled to the United States, initially on a lecture tour, but he
remained there until his final days. He
wrote for: Veker (Alarm) and was editor
of it for a time, Tsukunft (Future), Fraynd, and Forverts (Forward), among others, in New York. He contributed to an array of anthologies and
attempted to publish his own periodical: Bleter
far problemen fun sotsyalizm un kunst (Pages for problems of socialism and
art), only two issues. On September 20,
1932, Litvak died in New York after a long illness.
Litvak’s journalistic literary
activities were not limited solely to articles on timely issues; some of his
writings were highly important contributions to the history of the Jewish labor
movement and to the cultural history of the Jews in the nineteenth
century. These would include, first and
foremost: “Di zhargonishe komitetn” (The Yiddish committees); “Arn zundelevitsh”
(Arn Zundelevich); “Lobuzes, ganovim un kombinatorn” (Malicious types, thieves,
and schemers), published in the volumes of Royte
pinkes; “Afn feld fun kultur” (In the field of culture); “Di yidishe
literatur in 1924” (Yiddish literature in 1924); and “Der bund in varshe, 1905”
(The Bund in Warsaw, 1905), in Arbeter-luekh
(Warsaw, 1922, 1925, and 1926). In
addition to those mentioned above, other works by him in book form include: Vinter-abenden (Warsaw, 1897, 1912),
reprinted six times (1905 edition, 112 pp.); Der kleynbirgerlekher sotsyalizm (Petit bourgeois socialism)
(Warsaw: Di velt, 1906), 32 pp., written under the pen name “Levi”; Bay di bregn fun temze (By the banks of
the Thames), a report from the London conference of the Russian Social
Democratic Workers’ Party (Vilna: Di velt, 1907), 231 pp., written as “Levi”
together with D. Zaslavski-Bogrov; Shvartse
kuntsn oder di poylish-yidishe farshtendikung (The black arts or the
Polish-Jewish arrangement) (Warsaw: Di velt, 1923); Vos geven, etyudn un zikhroynes (What happened, studies and
memoirs) (Vilna-Warsaw: B. Kletskin, 1925), 287 pp.; Vert sotsyalistn, andere megen dos zayn, arbeter muzn dos zayn (Become
socialists, other may be, workers must be [socialists]) (New York: Yidishe
sotsyalistishe farband, 1930), 32 pp.; Literatur
un kamf, literarishe eseyen (Literature and struggle, literary essays) (New
York: Yidishe sotsyalistishe farband, 1933), 272 pp., published posthumously; Ma shehaya (What happened), Hebrew
translation by Sh. Ben-Avraham of Vos
geven, with an array of items that were not included in the Yiddish work,
with prefatory words from L. Levita (Tel Aviv: Histadrut, 1945), 256 pp.; Geklibene shriftn (Selected writings),
published with the assistance of Branch 90 of the Workmen’s Circle, Trenton,
New Jersey, on the fortieth anniversary of the branch (1945), 496 pp.—the last
work here was prepared for publication by Kh. Sh. Kazdan who also wrote
Litvak’s biography and including as well a bibliography of Litvak’s work. He also wrote under such pen names as: Levi,
A. Muk, A. Gurski, Ben Yokhed, Borekh, B. Riger, and Y. Grin. “I have known him for a long time,” wrote A.
Liessin, “and am aware of his frailties….
He was already seriously ill at the time…. And I saw him in extreme heat, as he lay
absent-mindedly with his heavy body on a one chair, with his sickly foot on a
second chair, with great globs of sweat on his forehead, with a thick year’s
worth of Tsukunft right before his
nearsighted eyes, and I thought to myself how nature can tinker with us—such
harmony in disharmony, such subtlety in crudity, so many people, ‘ordinary
folk,’ chosen and conspicuous.”
“Litvak’s socialism,” noted Leybish Lehrer, “preceded everyone else’s
and was more ethical and substantive than all others. Scientific prophesying about a society that ought to come inspired him less than
prophetic prophesying about a society that had to come…. When he stood at the podium and spoke, he
used no facial gestures…. His language
flowed smoothly, purely, like a clear river.
The sharpness of his gaze shot through his eyeglasses and stuck right
into the mood of the audience…. His
impact on followers was truly phenomenal.”
“He was the best Jewish socialist publicist,” wrote A. Mukdoni, “[and]
his articles were clear and to the point, not a superfluous word, no detours getting
to the theme. He always had the most
direct and therefore the shortest route to handle a question.” “Despite the fact that nature disabled his
foot and made it physically difficult for him,” observed Dovid Eynhorn, “he was….a
veritable whirlwind, a quicksilver who never rested in any one spot, never
sought any calm, never had a home, always wandering. A wishing ring that would suddenly disappear
and then emerge where you least expected it.”
Sources:
Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2; P.
Anman-Rozental, in the anthology 25 yor
(Twenty-five years) (Warsaw, 1922), pp. 67ff;
Anman-Rozental, in Royte pinkes
(Warsaw) 2 (1924), pp. 7ff; N. Mayzil, Noente un
vayte (Near and far), vol. 2 (Warsaw: Kletskin, 1926), pp. 154-59; N. A. Bukhbinder, Di geshikhte fun der
yidisher arbeter-bavegung in rusland, loyt nit-gedrukte arkhiṿ-materyaln
(The history of the Jewish labor movement in Russia, according to unpublished
archival materials) (Vilna, 1931), see index; N. Khanin, in Forverts (New York) (September 21,
1932); Khanin, in Der veker (New
York) (October 1, 1949); Dr. A. Khoralnik, in Tog (New York) (September 23, 1932); Sh. Rabinovitsh, P. Gelibter,
Y. Vaynberg, and Kh. Kantorovitsh, all in Der
veker (October 1, 1932); R. Abramovitsh, in Forverts (October 8, 1932); Shmuel Niger, in Tog (October 8, 1932); Niger, Habikoret
uveayoteha (Inquiry and its problems) (Jerusalem, 1957), p. 351; D.
Eynhorn, in Der veker (October 29,
1932); Eynhorn, in Forverts (October
2, 1948); Leybush Lehrer, in Idish
(New York) 17 (1932); Kh. L. Poznanski, Memuarn
fun a bundist (Memoirs of a Bundist) (Warsaw, 1938), pp. 127, 238; Kh. Sh.
Kazdan, “Der lebns-veg fun a. litvak” (The life path of A. Litvak), in A.
Litvak, Geklibene shriftn (Selected
writings) (Trenton, 1945), pp. 9-159; Kazdan and Shifre Kazdan, “A. litvak-biblyografye”
(A. Litvak bibliography), in Litvak, Geklibene
shriftn, pp. 483-95; Kh. Sh. Kazdan, in Unzer
tsayt (New York) (September 6, 1952); Kazdan, Fun kheyder un shkoles biz tsisho (From religious and secular primary schools to Tsisho) (Mexico City,
1956), see index; Z. Segalovitsh, Tlomatske 13, fun farbrentn nekhtn (13 Tłomackie St., of scorched yesterdays) (Buenos Aires, 1946); Moyshe
Shtarkman, in Hadoar (New York)
(Sivan 4 [= May 23], 1947); V. Shulman, in Tsukunft
(New York) (May 1947); D. Naymark, in Forverts
(October 11, 1952); A. Liessin, Zikhroynes
un bilder (Memoirs and images) (New York, 1954), pp. 272ff; P. Kurski, Gezamlte shriftn (Collected writings) (New York, 1952), see index; Y.
Sh. Herts, Di yidishe sotsyalistishe
bavegung in amerike, 70 yor sotsyalistishe tetikeyt, 30 yor yidishe
sotsyalistishe farband (The Jewish socialist movement in America, seventy
years of socialist activity, thirty years of the Jewish Socialist Union) (New
York, 1954), see index; Dr. A. Mukdoni, In varshe un in lodzh (In Warsaw and in Lodz)
(Buenos Aires, 1955), see index; Abram der Tate, Bleter fun mayn yugnt, zikhroynes fun a Bundist (Pages from my
youth, memoirs of a Bundist) (New York, 1959), pp. 221, 259; Di geshikhte fun “bund” (The history of
the Bund), vol. 1 (New York, 1960), see index; Arbeter-ring boyer un tuer (Workmen’s Circle builders and leaders)
(New York, 1962), pp. 210-11.
Mortkhe-Velvl
Bernshteyn
