NOKHUM FRIDMAN (1906-1976)
He was a
Soviet journalist, poet, and translator, born in the town of Lemush (Lemeshi?),
Byelorussia. He went to Homel (Gomel) to
study at the pedagogical technical school, and he was already then placing work
in periodicals. Then, until 1929 he
studied in the Yiddish literature department, one of its first students, of the
Number Two Moscow State University. For
a time he worked as a teacher in Jewish schools. He was among the first Yiddish cultural leaders
in Birobidzhan. He debuted in print with
sketches in: Yungvald (Young forest)
in Moscow (1925). Later, he contributed
to: Pyoner (Pioneer) and Emes (Truth) in Moscow; Birobidzhaner shtern (Birobidzhan star)
for which he served as secretary of the editorial board, Forpost (Outpost), and Sovetish
heymland (Soviet homeland), the literary almanacs Birobidzhan 1936 and Birobidzhan
1948, and Di yidishe oytonome gegnt birobidzhan
(The Jewish autonomous region, Birobidzhan) (1960)—and he also served as
co-editor of the last three of these. He
spent the lion’s share of his career in Birobidzhan. He and a handful of fellow Homel colleagues established
a commune there. He fought on the front during
WWII and worked in the army press, before returning to Birobidzhan. He was purged in 1949, rehabilitated in 1956,
and again returned to Birobidzhan. He
died in Moscow.
Sources: Biblyografishe
yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), see
index; Dos yidishe bukh in sovetnfarband
(The Yiddish book in the Soviet Union) (Moscow), see index; N. Mayzil, Dos yidishe shafn un der yidisher shrayber
in sovetn-farband (Jewish creation and the Jewish writer in the Soviet
Union) (New York, 1959), see index; Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications
in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index.
Yankev Kahan
[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. 299-300.]
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