David Hofstein

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David Naumowitsch Hofstein ( Russian Давид Наумович Гофштейн ; born July 25 . Jul / 6. August  1889 greg. In Korostischew , Kiev Governorate , † 12. August 1952 in Moscow , Soviet Union ) was a Soviet writer. He is considered to be one of the most important representatives of Yiddish poetry after the First World War and has published several volumes of poetry, plays and translations from Russian and Ukrainian and was also the editor of various literary collector's books and publications (including the Yiddish monthly books published in Moscow under the title Der shtrom (The Stream), the last free Yiddish publication of the Soviet Union).

Life

Until he was 17, Hofstein studied the Talmud and Hebrew literature, then natural sciences, before going on a trip to the Caucasus. This was followed by studies at the Psychoneurological Institute in Saint Petersburg and finally at the University of Commerce in Kiev .

At the age of nineteen he wrote songs in Hebrew, later in Ukrainian and Russian. After the October Revolution , which he enthusiastically welcomed and supported, he initially wrote exclusively in Yiddish and was one of the best-known and most valued members of the so-called Kiev group .

The co-signing of an appeal against the persecution of the Hebrew language in Soviet Russia and the resulting conflict with the Jewish communists forced him to temporarily leave the Soviet Union. He lived as a freelance writer in Berlin in 1922 , and from 1923 in Palestine as a collaborator in Hebrew journals, but also wrote various dramas there.

In 1926 he returned to Kiev, but was subsequently forced to write glorifying poems for the Communist Party. He praised communism and its achievements, the leader Stalin , the communist symbols hammer and sickle etc.

He welcomed the establishment of the State of Israel with joy. In the same year when Stalin revised his original support for Israel, David Hofstein was arrested, together with Kwitko , Markisch and other members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee , first to Moscow, then to Siberia , around 1952, like many other outstanding ones Exponent of Yiddish art and culture to become a victim of the Stalinist purges . He was executed on the " Night of the Murdered Poets " from August 12th to 13th, 1952 in the Lubyanka in Moscow .

After Stalin's death, David Hofstein was rehabilitated, and a selection of his works in Russian translation was published in 1958.

Works (selection)

  • The cycles Felder appeared between 1911 and 1919 ; Mountains ; Forest ; Snow (all of them idyllic natural songs)
  • By the way , Kiev 1919 (song collection)
  • Red Blood , Kiev 1920 (song collection)
  • Childhood , Kiev 1920 (volume of prose)
  • Sun Loops , Kiev 1921 (song collection)
  • Mourning , Kiev 1922 (song collection)
  • Strassensteine , Kiev 1922 (song collection)
  • In the blackboard , Berlin 1923 (song collection)
  • Collected Works , 1923 (only the 1st volume of this magnificent edition containing Hofstein's poetry has been published)
  • Scha'ul, the last Meilech fun Jisruel , 1924 ("Saul, last King of Israel", dramatic poem)
  • Meschiechs Zaitn , 1925 ("Messianic Times", expressionist drama)
  • Lider , 1935 (autobiographical description of his path from religious youth to militant Marxist)

literature

  • N. Meisel, in: Book World 1923
  • Salomon Wininger : Great Jewish National Biography. 1925 ff. Vol. III
  • Reisen , Leksikon ... , 1926 f.
  • Salomon Adler-Rudel , article Dawid Hofstein , in Jüdisches Lexikon , Vol. II, Berlin 1927
  • Stemberger , History of Jewish Literature , 1977
  • Sol Liptzin, article Hofstein, David , in: Encyclopedia Judaica (1997)