ZELIK-HIRSH
KALMANOVITSH (ZELIG KALMANOVITCH) (October
30, 1885-winter 1944)[1]
He was a linguist and translator,
born into a poor family in Goldingen (Kuldīga), Courland (Latvia). Until age fifteen he studied in religious
elementary school and yeshiva. As an
external student, in 1901 he passed the high school examinations in Libave (Liepāja). He
spent 1902-1905 in Berlin and 1909-1910 in Königsberg, studying Semitic
philology, as well as psychology, political economy, and the classical
world. In 1919 he completed his
doctorate at St. Petersburg University, but he never used his title of
“doctor.” Politically, Kalmonovitsh went
through several phases. In 1902 he
listened in on the circle around Nakhmen Syrkin, in Russia he was close to the
territorialists, later to the Sejmists whom he left in 1917 to join the Jewish
Folkspartey (People’s party). Later
still, he came to the conclusion that the problem of the Jews could only be solved
in the land of Israel. His literary work
commenced in 1906 with the translation of Russian pamphlets into Yiddish for
the Sejmists, and in their Folksshtime
(Voice of the people) (1906-1907) he also placed articles. He later worked for F. Margolin’s Idishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper), for
A. Litvin’s Leben un visenshaft (Life
and science), and for B. Kletskin’s publishing house in Vilna, which during WWI
was transferred to St. Petersburg, and Kalmanovitsh became manager and
co-editor for the publisher. In 1921 he
became a lecturer on the Yiddish language for the teachers’ training courses in
Minsk. In 1922 he moved to Kovno where
he worked as stylistic editor for the daily Nayes
(News). For a short time he lived in
Berlin, later in Riga where he was a teacher of Yiddish and editor of the daily
Letste nayes (Latest news). In 1925 he became a teacher of Hebrew and
Tanakh at the Ponevezh (Panevėžys) Hebrew high school. In 1928 he returned to Vilna, became a member
of the YIVO management, and edited Yivo-bleter
(Pages from YIVO). He and his wife were
in Vilna during WWII, initially under the Soviets and later in the ghetto. He had his own opinion about the conduct of
the Jews in the ghetto. He was opposed
to an organized uprising in the
ghetto. He believed that that would only
bring unhappiness to the ghetto and that through work and perseverance perhaps
a portion of the Jews would survive.
From the beginning of September 1943, he survived two concentration
camps in Estonia, ultimately in the Narew camp where he died in the winter of
1944 from weakness and illness.
Kalmanovitsh kept a diary in Hebrew in the ghetto, which was
discovered. His son, Sholem Lurye
(Shalom Luria), published it under the
title Yoman begeto vilna (Diary of
the Vilna ghetto) (Tel Aviv, 1977), 202 pp., with a long introduction. The Yiddish translation was published a bit
earlier in Yivo-bleter 35 (1951), pp.
18-92.
Kalmanovitsh spent a great deal of
time researching the Yiddish language and was one of the important contributors
to modern Yiddish philology. One can see
from his selected language materials that he was preparing to publish a
semantic dictionary or a collection of folklore. He did publish a series of articles and
research pieces, mainly on philological and historical topics. In the field of language, he debuted in print
(using the pen name F. Kleyn) in Literarishe
monatshriften (Literary monthly writings) (Vilna) 3-4 (1908) with articles
on “Di yudishe shprakh lehre” (Teaching of Yiddish language) and Zalmen Reyzen’s
Yudishe gramatik (Yiddish
grammar). His longer works would
include: “Nay-yidish” (Modern Yiddish), Literarishe
bleter (Literary leaves) in Warsaw (1925); “Der yidishe dyalekt in Kurland”
(The Yiddish dialect in Courland), Filologishe
shriftn (Philological writings) in Vilna 1 (1926), pp. 161-88; “Tsi iz
miglekh a fonetish oysleg fun der yidisher literarisher shprakh?” (Is a
phonetic spelling of the literary Yiddish language possible?), in Der eynheytlekher yidisher oysleg (Uniform
Yiddish spelling) (Vilna, 1930), pp. 3-17; “Visnshaftlekhe metode un natsyonale
gayve” (Scientific method and national conceit), Yivo-bleter 3.5 (1933), pp. 247-63; “Yoysef perls yidishe ksovim, literarisher
un shprakhiker analiz” (Joseph Perl’s Yiddish writings, literary and linguistic
analysis), Yivo-bleter 10 (1936),
which also appeared in a book of this title (Vilna, 1937); “Der shoyresh fun
daytshmerish” (The root of Germanisms), Yidish
far ale (Yiddish for everyone) in Vilna 1 (1938), pp. 209-16; “Untern hamer
fun geshikhte” (Under the hammer of history), Afn sheydveg (At the crossroad) in Paris (April 1939), pp. 29-46; the
entries “Hebreish” (Hebrew) and “Aramish”
(Aramaic) in Algemeyne entsiklopedye
(General encyclopedia) (Paris, 1940); “Y. l. perets kuk af der yidisher
literatur” (Y. L. Perets looks at Yiddish literature), Di goldene keyt (The golden chain) in Tel Aviv 2 (1949), pp. 114-26,
with supplements in Yivo-bleter 33
(1950), pp. 49-64—this work was written in the Vilna ghetto. A synopsis of his lectures before the Minsk
teachers, entitled Yidishe gramatik
(Yiddish grammar), was published by the Byelorussian State Publishers (Minsk,
1921), 56 pp. In 1922 his pamphlet Unzer shul-frage (Our school issue) was
published by Likht in Kovno, 27 pp. His ghetto
diary was translated (by Koppel S. Pinson) into English: “A Diary of the Nazi
Ghetto in Vilna,” YIVO Annual of Jewish
Social Science (New York) 8 (1953), pp. 9-81.
Kalmanovitsh translated into Yiddish
a number of important works: Shimon Dubnov, Algemeyne
idishe geshikhte fun di eltste tsaytn biz der nayer tsayt (General Jewish
history from oldest times to the modern era [original: Vsemirnaia istoriia evreiskago naroda
(World history of the Jewish people)]), 4 vols. (Vilna: Idishe tsaytung,
1909-1910); Emil Shürer, Geshikhte fun yudishen
folk in der tsayt fun beys sheyni (History of the Jewish people at the time
of the Second Temple), 2 vols. (Vilna: B. A. Kletskin, 1914), 231 pp. + 271
pp.; Flavius Josephus, Di yidishe
milkhomes (The Jewish wars) (Vilna: B. Kletskin, 1914)—two chapters, “Di
letste teg fun yerusholaim” (The last days of Jerusalem) and “Di letste kanoim”
(The last fanatics), were published separately (Berlin: Klal, 1922), new
editions (Vilna, 1923, 1931); Ralph Waldo Emerson, Vos iz kunst? (What is art?) (New York: Folksbildung, 1915), 30
pp.; R. Vipper, Lern-bukh fun alte
geshikhte (Textbook of ancient history [original: Uchebniki drevneĭ istorii]) (Berlin: Vostok, 1923), 265 pp., (Vilna
reprint: B. Kletskin, 1925), 401 pp.; Yu Wagner, Mayses vegn fayer un likhtigkeyt (Stories of fire and light)
(Berlin: Klal, 1922), 63 pp.; David Koigen, In
shturem fun geshikhte, aroysgerisene bletlakh fun tog-bukh, 1914-1921 (In
the whirlwind of history, pages wrested from a diary, 1914-1921 [original: Im Wirbel der Geschichte] (Berlin:
Jewish Literary Publ., 1923), 247 pp.; Otto Hauser, Urmentsh un vilder, a paralel tsvishn der farhistorisher tsayt un der
itstiger (Caveman and savage, a parallel between prehistorical times and
the present) (Berlin: Klal, 1923), 161 pp.; Max Brod, Di froy fun undzer beynkshaft, roman (The woman for whom you long,
a novel [original: Die Frau nach der man
sich sehnt, Roman]) (Riga: Bikher far ale, 1928), 200 pp.; H. G. Wells, Velt-geshikhte (World history) (Vilna:
B. Kletskin, 1930), 6 vols.; Sh. Dubnov, Geshikhte
fun khsidizm (History of Hassidism [original: Geschichte des Chassidismus]) (Vilna: B. Kletskin, 1930-1933), 3
vols. In Letste nayes (Riga), he published his translation of Jack London’s
novel Hearts of Three under the title
Farborgene koykhes (Hidden strengths)
and S. Poliakov-Litovtsev’s novel Sabbatai
Tsevi. He also wrote for: Di yudishe velt (The Jewish world) in
Vilna; Di vokh (The week) in Vilna
(1915—as editor-publisher); Nayes in
Kovno; the weekly Fraytik (Friday) in
Liepāja (from January 9, 1925); and Vokh (Week) in Riga; among
others.
Sources: Zalmen
Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Kh. Dunets,
in Prolit (Kharkov) (January-February
1931); Shmuel Niger, Draysik yor keneder
odler, yubiley oysgabe (Thirty years of Keneder
odler, jubilee publication) (Montreal, 1938); Y. Bashevis, in Tsukunft (New York) 1 (1940); Y.
Kharlash, in Unzer tsayt (New York)
(April-May 1952); A. A. Robak, in Kultur
un dertsiung (New York) (February 1959); R. Mahler, in Di goldene keyt (Tel Aviv) 49 (1963); the fullest Kaganovitsh biography
is to be found in the introduction to Yoman
begeto vilna (Diary of the Vilna ghetto), written by his son Sholem Lurye.
Yankev Birnboym
[1] This birth year according to biographical materials
from his son Sholem Lurye; Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon,
gives the year 1881.
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