YUDE (DOVID) NOVOGRUDSKI

YUDE (DOVID) NOVOGRUDSKI (b. 1896)

            The brother of Bernard and Emanuel Novogrudski, he was a translator and journalist, born in Warsaw, Poland. He received both a Jewish and a general education. He worked as a teacher of natural science in Warsaw schools. For a time he was active in the socialist Jewish youth organization “Tsukunft” (Future) in Warsaw. His writing activities commenced with articles in the Bundist biweekly serial Sotsyalistishe yugnt-shtime (Voice of socialist youth) in Warsaw (1919). After the civil war, he left for Soviet Russia, where he was an active leader in Jewish school and cultural work. In Soviet Russia he was a contributor to the journals: Yungvald (Young forest), Pyoner (Pioneer), and Af di vegn tsu der nayer shul (On the road to the new school), and to the newspaper Der emes (The truth), all in Moscow, as well as such serial publications as: Oktyabr (October) and Der shtern (The star), in Minsk and Kiev—in which, on the whole, he wrote about cultural and school matters, reviews of school books, and translations from Russian into Polish. He was also well-known as a compiler of a series of textbooks for Jewish schools. For a time he lived in Moscow, later in Alma-Ata and other places. In 1937, during the Moscow show trials, he was exiled to various camps, before being freed in 1944 and settling in Moscow. The last information known of him dates to the early 1950s, when he was living in Moscow.

He was the author of: Pyonern, yunge naturalistn (Pioneers, young naturalists), a textbook of natural science (Moscow: Shul un bukh, 1925), 143 pp., with drawings and pictures. He translated from Russian to Yiddish: B. Ignatiev and S. Sokolov, Kuk zikh tsu tsu der natur (Pay attention to nature) (Moscow: Shul un bukh, 1927), 4 booklets, each 64 pp.; and M. Agapov and S. Sokolov, Yunger geograf (Young geographer), geography textbook (Moscow: Central People’s Publishers, USSR, 1927), 126 pp.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), see index; Y. Ratner and M. Kvitni, Dos yidishe bukh in f.s.s.r. in di yorn 1917-1921 (The Yiddish book in the USSR for the years 1917-1921) (Kiev, 1930), nos. 700-2; M. Anilovitsh and M. Yofe, Shriftn fun psikhologye un pedagogik (Writings on psychology and pedagogy) 1 (Vilna: YIVO, 1933), p. 492; information from Emanuel Novogrudski and Sh. Herts in New York.

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), pp. 245-46.]