DOVID MATS (b. 1902)
He was born in Minsk, Byelorussia,
into a working-class family. He
graduated from a pedagogical technical school.
From 1922 he was active in the Jewish section of Komsomol (Communist
Youth League) in Byelorussia. He worked
for a time as a teacher in a higher Jewish educational institution in
Minsk. He later lived in Moscow,
Kharkov, and Kiev. His writing work
began with the children’s monthly magazine Freyd
(Joy) in Kharkov (1922-1923), for which he also served as co-editor; later, Der yunger pyoner (The young pioneer) in
Minsk (1926-1928); Der pyoner-veker
(The pioneer alarm), also its editor; Der
emes (The truth), Yungvald (Young
forest), Pyoner (Pioneer), Af di vegn tsu der nayer shul (En route
to the new school) (1927), and Ratnbildung
(Soviet education) (1928-1937)—in Moscow; Oktyabr
(October), Shtern (Star), and others
in Minsk; Afn shprakhfront (On the
language front) in Kiev); and Di royte
velt (The red world) in Kharkov; among others. He was among the top leadership of the
Ukrainian People’s Commissariat for Education, before being sent to work in
Byelorussia. He was the editor of the
community literary reader Der yunger
arbeter (The young laborer) for the second and third classes of evening
schools (Minsk, 1927), 178 pp. He was
involved in strengthening teaching, preparing educational materials, and
planning for the future of cultural education.
None of this came to fruition, as he was soon accused of “Yiddishist
inclinations” and removed from all his posts.
He was arrested in Minsk in the latter half of the 1930s. From 1937 there has been no further
information about him.
Sources:
Der yunger pyoner (Minsk) 17 (1927); Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo
(Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), see index; Chone Shmeruk,
comp., Pirsumim yehudiim
babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union,
1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index.
Khayim Leyb Fuks
[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), p. 226.]
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