BERL KATSENELSON

BERL KATSENELSON (January 25, 1887-August 13, 1944)

            He was born in Babruysk, Byelorussia.  He was raised in a household tied to the Jewish Enlightenment.  At age sixteen he sat for the examination to become a teacher.  He joined the Labor Zionists, switched to the territorialists, and later to the Sejmists.  In 1909 he came to the land of Israel.  There he became a theorist of Zionist socialism and a great spiritual authority for the Israeli labor movement.  Although a Hebraist, he was no enemy of Yiddish.  He wrote a bit in Yiddish for the Cracow weekly Dos fraye vort (The free word).  Several pamphlets by him—Di yidishe arbeter bank in erets-yisroel, a zamlung artiklen (The Jewish workers’ bank in the land of Israel, a collection of articles) (Warsaw, 1922), 24 pp.; Arbeter akhdes (Labor unity) (Tel Aviv, 1940s), 125 pp.; and Eyner kegn alemen, nakhmen sirkins ershte kamf-yorn (One against all, Nakhmen Sirkin’s first years of fighting) (Tel Aviv, 1940), 143 pp.—were translated from Hebrew, and it is doubtful if Katsenelson’s articles after 1909 were originally written in Yiddish.  His Shriftn un redes (Writings and speeches) (New York, 1945), edited by Sh. Grodzenski, 427 pp., and Oysgeveylte shriftn (Selected writings) (Munich, 1948; Tel Aviv, 1949), edited by Sh. Dorner, 364 pp., were all, save one article, translated from Hebrew.  He died in Jerusalem.

Sources: Getzel Kressel, Leksikon hasifrut haivrit (Handbook of Hebrew literature), vol. 2 (Merḥavya, 1967); A. Revutski, in Tsayt (New York) (March 5, 1922); Sefer haishim (Biographical dictionary) (Tel Aviv, 1936/1937); Sh. Grodzenski, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (August 21, 1964).

Berl Cohen