LEYB TSART

LEYB TSART

            He was a literary critic and scholar, an author of textbooks for schools, and an editor of literary publications, who lived in Minsk, Byelorussia. He worked in the Yiddish division of the Byelorussian Academy of Sciences in Minsk and contributed to various of its scholarly publications, such as Literarishe zamlbukh (Literary anthology) (Minsk, 1934). He adapted a series of Yiddish literary classics for use in the schools, and he published reviews of work by Yiddish writers. Together with L. Toker and N. Roginsky, he compiled Yunger arbeter, literarish-gezelshaftlekhe khrestomatye far der tsveyter un driter grupe fun ovntshuln far arbeter-yugnt (Young worker, literary-sociological reader, for the second and third group of evening schools for laboring youth), ed. Dovid Mats (Minsk: Byelorussian State Publishers, 1927), 180 pp. He also compiled: together with Sore Maryasina, In land fun sovetn, lernbukh far shuln fun veyneyk-iṿredike un ershte grupn fun shuln far arbeter-yungt (In the land of Soviets, a textbook for schools low literacy and the first groups of schools for laboring youth) (Minsk: Byelorussian State Publishers, 1928), 352 pp., second edition (Minsk: Central People’s Publishers, USSR, 1930), 379 pp., third revised edition (Moscow-Kharkov-Minsk: Central People’s Publishers, USSR, 1931), 248 pp.; and with K. Beznosik, Arbet-bukh af literatur far di ershte kursn fun arbfak un ovnt-shuln fun hekhern tip (Workbook in literature for the first courses of workers’ faculty and evening schools of the higher sort), part 1 (Moscow-Kharkov-Minsk: Central People’s Publishers, USSR, 1930), 408 pp; and adapted for school use, Mendele Moykher-Sforim’s Fishke der krume (Fishke the lame) (Moscow-Kharkov-Minsk: Central Publishers, 1931), 93 pp. The last work that Tsart published was dated 1934, and his subsequent fate remains unknown.

Source: Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index.

Benyomen Elis

[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. 301.]