SERGEY NUTKEVITSH

SERGEY NUTKEVITSH (SERGEI NUTKIEWICZ, September 21, 1906-1985)

            He was born in Lodz, Poland.  He received a Jewish and a secular education.  He graduated from Yarotshinski’s high school.  From the early years of his youth, he was active in the Jewish socialist movement.  He was a cofounder of the Bundist youth organization “Tsukunft” (Future) in Lodz, and he later was a member of the central committee of Tsukunft in Poland.  He was the founder of the Bundist children’s organization “Skif” (Sotsyalistishe kinder farband, or Socialist children’s union) in Lodz.  He was a Bundist councilor on the Lodz city council, and for his anti-Hitler speeches there he was beaten up by Polish hooligans and arrested by the police.  In early September 1939 he left Lodz, lived illegally for a time in the Soviet-occupied zone, and later was in Vilna, from whence in 1941 he came to Canada and later moved to the United States.  He lived in Detroit, continuing his education, and in 1954 received his M.A. degree in social work from Michigan State University.  He went on to specialize in geriatrics, the field of study devoted to life in old age.  For a time he was a teacher and principal at Workmen’s Circle schools in Toronto and Detroit.  From 1954 he was a teacher and lecturer in the Los Angeles school system for adults.  In 1962 he gave a talk on the problems of the elderly at a conference run by the Council of Aging in Chicago, and in 1963 he spoke on the same topic at a scholarly meeting on geriatrics in Copenhagen.  His writing activities began with a poem in the student journal Veritas (Truth) in Lodz, and he later published articles in: Sotsyalistishe yugnt-shtime (Voice of socialist youth) in Warsaw (1920); Lodzher veker (Lodz alarm) (1933-1939), also its editor; Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper) in Warsaw (1936-September 1939), also editor of the Lodz edition of the newspaper; Yugnt-veker (Youth alarm) in Warsaw; Lodzher sotsyalistishe shtime (Socialist voice of Lodz) (1920), also editor.  He also contributed to Polish socialist newspapers: Walka Ludu (People’s struggle) in Warsaw and Łodzianin (Lodz inhabitant), among others, until 1939.  In America, he wrote for the Detroit edition of Forverts (Forward), also its editor (1952-1953), and for the regular Forverts, Der veker (The alarm), Gerekhtikeyt (Justice), Lodzher yizker-bukh (Lodz remembrance volume) (1943), and Doyres bundistn (Generations of Bundists)—in New York; Unzer shtime (Our voice) in Paris; and Foroys (Onward) in Mexico City; among others.  Over the years 1942-1946, he served as editor of the Polish socialist periodical Walka Ludu in Toronto.  He wrote stage performance works for dramatic groups in Lodz, Toronto, Detroit, and Los Angeles.  Among his pen names: Yudes Dambi, S. Yungman, F. Betisman, N. S., N. Sergash, S-zh, and Serozh.  He was last living in Los Angeles.  He was director of activities for adults and the elderly at a Jewish Community Center.  He was a regular contributor to the English-language monthly publication Center Life in Los Angeles.

Sources: Y. Sh. Herts, Geshikhte fun a yugnt (Story of a youngster) (New York, 1946), pp. 179, 326, 420; Herts, Di geshikhte fun bund in lodz (The history of the Bund in Lodz) (New York, 1958), see index; P Shvarts, “Yidishe prese in varshe” (The Yiddish press in Warsaw), Fun noentn over (New York) 2 (1956), p. 427; Khayim Leyb Fuks, in Fun noentn over 3 (1957), see index; A. V. Yasni, Di geshikhte fun yidn in lodzh in di yorn fun der daytsher yidn-oysrotung (The history of Jews of Lodz in the years of the Germany extermination of Jews) (Tel Aviv, 1960), see index; Biblyografye fun yidishe bikher vegn khurbn un gvure (Bibliography of Yiddish books concerning the Holocaust and heroism) (New York, 1962), see index.

Khayim Leyb Fuks