PEYSEKH KAPLAN (September 4, 1870-1943)
He was a
Hebrew and Yiddish writer, born in Stavisk, Lomzhe region, Poland. In 1883 he was brought to join his father in
Horodishtsh (Gorodishche). He studied
in religious elementary school and yeshivas.
From 1888 he was living in Bialystok.
He turned his attention to teaching, and in 1897 he graduated from the
teachers’ training course in Grodno and opened a city school in 1900. He later devoted himself entirely to
journalism and editorial work. He was
initially a Zionist, later switching to territorialism, and finally (in 1918)
to the Folkspartey (People’s party); and he was a councilman in the Jewish city
council of Bialystok. He did good work
on behalf of Jewish music and published several songbooks in Hebrew and
Yiddish. He debuted in print in 1889 in Hamelits (The advocate) and contributed
to other Hebrew periodicals as well. He
was a fierce opponent of Yiddish, calling it “safa bazuya” (a despised
language), but after starting 1904 by writing for Tog (Day) and Fraynd
(Friend) in St. Petersburg, he grew closer to Yiddish, and from 1914 he was
tied in his literary journalistic career to it.
He published articles, feature pieces, stories, reviews, and from time
to time poetry in M. Shiva’s Di hayntige
tsayt (Contemporary times), Dos
byalistoker vort (The Bialystok word) which he edited (1913-1914, initially
a weekly and later a daily), and other serials in Bialystok; correspondence pieces
in Haynt (Today), Moment (Moment) using the pen name Z.
Vaynshteyn, and Forverts (Forward)
under the pen name Tsemekh. His most
productive literary-journalistic work, though, was connected to the daily
newspaper Dos naye lebn (The new
life), which he founded in 1919 and existed (in the early 1930s under the title
Unzer lebn [Our life]) until the
outbreak of WWII. Almost every day, he
wrote for this newspaper an article, feature, fictional item, theater or film
review, using such pseudonyms as: P. K., Khonen, M. Fuksman, B. Ts-n, Z.
Goldshteyn, and Yedidye. He also edited Byalistoker vort (Bialystok word) in
1917 (initially a weekly, later a daily) and Byalistoker almanakh (Bialystok almanac) (1931), and co-edited Byalistoker leksikon (Bialystok handbook)
(1935), among other works. Kaplan’s
ghetto poems were published in Shmerke Katsherginski’s Lider fun di getos un lagern (Poems of the ghettos and
concentration camps) (New York, 1948), Moyshe Prager’s Min hametsar karati (From the depths I read) (Jerusalem, 1956), B. Marks’s Der oyfshtand in byalistoker geto
(The resistance in the Bialystok ghetto) (Warsaw: Jewish Historical Institute,
1950), and Hubert Witt’s Der Fiedler vom
Getto: Jiddische Dichtung aus Polen (The fiddler of the ghetto, Yiddish
poetry from Poland) (Leipzig, 1966, 1978).
One of Kaplan’s last ghetto poems, entitled “Rivkele di shabesdike”
(Rivkele the Sabbath [girl]), was published in Folks shtime (Voice of the people) in Warsaw (August 17,
1960). In Yad Vashem in Jerusalem there
may be found copies of his Byalistoker
yudnrat (Bialystok Jewish council) and Geyresh
byalistok (Expulsion of Bialystok).
In book and pamphlet form: Di
yudishe natsyonal biblyothek in yerusholaim (The National Jewish Library in
Jerusalem) (Odessa: Zionist kopek library, 1911/1912), 18 pp.; Yapanishe mayselekh (Japanese stories)
(Bialystok, 1921), 91 pp.; Gezang-oytser
far shul un heym (Treasury of songs for school and home), 108 new Yiddish
songs with notation (Kaplan’s own songs which he wrote while running a
children’s home, 1914-1915) (Bialystok, 1924), 105 pp. + 64 pp.; Byalistoker zamelheft, leṭoyves der biliger un umzister kikh (Bialystok
anthology, on behalf of the inexpensive and free kitchen), 3 vols. (Bialystok,
1933-1938). His translations include: M.
Mandelshtam, An ofene brief tsu di
rusishe tsienistn (An open letter to the Russian Zionists) (Vilna: Widow
and Brothers Romm, 1904/1905), 16 pp. (several printings); Y. Zangwill, Der teritoryalizm un zayne gegner
(Territorialism and its opponents) (Warsaw: Medine, 1905/1906), 32 pp.; Lieder-bukh, a zamlung fun gezangen far khor
un solo (Songbook, a collection of songs for chorus and solo), translated
from classical poems with music by Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert, Robert
Schumann, and others, with seven original pieces (Warsaw: Bikher-far-ale,
1912), 160 pp., second edition (Warsaw, 1914); Krilovs mesholim (Krykov’s fables) (Bialystok: Kultur-lige, 1918),
78 pp., full edition (Bialystok: A. Albek, 1921-1922), three parts in 2 vols.,
146 pp.; V. Korolenko, On a loshn
(Without a language [original: Bez yazyka]) (Bialystok: Dos bukh,
1921), 202 pp.; Heinrich Mann, Di orime,
roman (The poor [original: Die Armen:
Roman] (Bialystok: A. Albek, 1921), 258 pp.; Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak, Khaneles mayselakh (Hannah’s tales),
under the pen name Yedidye (Bialystok: Kultur-lige, 1921), two parts in one
volume; Rudyard Kipling, Der keml un zayn
horb (The camel and his hump [original: “How the Camel Got His Hump”]) (Bialystok:
Dos bukh, 1921), 15 pp.; Der alter kongur
(The old kangaroo [original: “The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo”]) (Bialystok: Dos bukh, 1921), 16 pp.; Shir hashirim (Song of Songs)
(Bialystok: A. Albek, 1922), 27 pp.; Rambam
in yidish, geklibene shriftn (Maimonides in Yiddish, selected writings)
(Bialystok: Unzer prese, 1935), 160 pp.
Kaplan also translated plays, opera, and operettas which were staged
1912-1914 in Yiddish theaters: Shoshane
di tsnue (Shoshana the chaste woman),
Khave (Eve), Tsigayner-libe (Gypsy love), Puptshik
(Little guy), and Meydl-mark (Girl market). Two of them were published: Pietro Mascagni, Di dorfishe ere (Village honor [original: Cavalleria Rusticana (Rustic
chivalry)]) (Warsaw: Bikher-far-ale, 1912/1913), 22 pp.; Ruggero Leoncavallo, Di payatsn (The clowns [original: Pagliacci]) (Warsaw: Bikher-far-ale,
1912), 35 pp. In his first period,
Kaplan not only contributed to many Hebrew-language periodicals, but he also
published a series of books in Hebrew, largely translations, and he also
translated from Hebrew into Yiddish, such as: Dovid Pinski, Gliksfargesene (Happily forgotten), 16
pp.; Osip Dimov, Shma yisroel (Hear,
O Israel), 50 pp.; M. Ornshteyn, Dos
eybike lid (The eternal song)—all: Bialystok: Habima, 1913. He died in the Bialystok ghetto.
Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Getzel Kressel, Leksikon hasifrut haivrit (Handbook of Hebrew literature), vol. 2
(Merḥavya, 1967); Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) 23 (1924); Unzer lebn (Bialystok) (October 14,
1938); Zusman Segalovitsh, Tlomatske 13,
fun farbrente nekhtn (13 Tłomackie St., of zealous nights) (Buenos Aires: Central Association of
Polish Jews in Argentina, 1946), p. 187; R. Rayzner, Umkum fun byalistoker geto (The destruction of the Bialystok ghetto)
(Melbourne, 1948), p. 155; Avrom Shmuel Hershberg, Pinkes byalistok (Records of Bialystok), vols. 1-2 (New York,
1949-1950), see index; B. Marks, Der oyfshtand in byalistoker geto
(The resistance in the Bialystok ghetto) (Warsaw: Jewish Historical Institute,
1950), pp. 143-44; A. Zak, In onheyb
fun a friling, kapitlekh zikhroynes (At the start of spring, chapters of
memoirs) (Buenos Aires: Farband fun poylishe yidn, 1962), pp. 206-9; E.
R. Malachi, in Al admat besarabya (On
Bessarabian soil) (Tel Aviv, 1962/1963), pp. 16-21; Itonut yehudit
shehayta
(Jewish press that was) (Tel Aviv, 1973), see index; YIVO archives (New York).
Berl Cohen