Samuel Niger

The young Samuel Niger

Samuel Niger (Yiddish Shmuel or Shmuel Niger; pseudonym for Samuel Tscharny or Shmuel Tscharni, also Samuel Charney; * June 15 ^jul. / June 27,  1883 ^greg. In Dukora near Minsk ; † December 24, 1955 in New York ) was a Russian Yiddish writer, critic, and publicist. He is considered an important literary critic of Yiddish literature .

Life

Samuel Niger received a strictly Jewish upbringing and studied the Talmud until he was 17 , as well as profane sciences.

He was initially politically active (in 1904 co-founder of the Zionist Socialist Party, journalist for the party newspaper Der najer Weg, arrested and tortured several times by the Russian authorities), then, after his first literary attempts in Russian and Hebrew , he became a collaborator and editor of numerous Yiddish books literary magazines and developed into a leading figure in Yiddish cultural work and Yiddishism in Russia up to the October Revolution .

He had lived in New York since August 1919 and became a critic of Yiddish literary life , primarily because of his articles that had been published in Tog for decades .

Works / editions (selection)

• Away from Jewish schrajber. Vilnius / Warsaw 1912 (2 volumes)
• In memory of Sholem Alejchem . 1916 (together with Israel Zinberg)
• Dijidic literature and reader. Vilna 1919
• Schmueßn wegn bicher. New York 1922
• Selected Writings. New York 1928 (3 volumes)
• Mendele Mojcher Sforim . New York 1928, Chicago 1936
• Shalom Alechem, his most important works, his humor and his place in Yiddish literature. New York 1928
• In kamf far a najer derziung. New York 1940
• The bilingual fun and literature. Detroit, Michigan, 1941
• Derzejlerßn Romanissn. New York 1946
• H. Lejwik . Toronto 1951
• YL Perez . Buenos Aires 1952
• Lekßikon fun of the najer yidic literature. New York 1956
• Criticism and Critic. Buenos Aires 1959
• Bleter story fun of Yidic literature. New York 1959
• Jewish schrajber fun zwanzikstn jorhundred. New York 1972
• Fun majn togbuch. New York 1973
• Bilingualism in the history of Jewish literature. Lanham Md. 1990 (translated by Joshua A. Fogel)

Editorial collaboration / editing (selection)

• Monthly literary publications. Vilnius 1908 (founded by Niger, A. Weiter and Sch. Gorelik)
• Dijidian world. Vilnius 1912–1915 (monthly journal)
• The pinkeß. Jorbuch for Yiddish literature. Vilnius 1913
• Tuesday week 1914
• העבר. Petrograd 1916
• Culture and education. 1918 (published by the Jewish Commissariat in Moscow)
• Di naje world. Vilnius 1918/1919 (monthly journal, commissioned by the Commissariat for Popular Education, Moscow)
• Wilner Tog. (until 1919; newspaper founded by Niger)
• Forwertß . New York 1919
• The tog. New York 1920–1955 (Yiddish daily newspaper)
• Do not live. New York 1922 (monthly journal, together with Chaim Schitlowsky , eleven issues published)

literature

• B. Graubart, in: Die Feder (1925)
• Salomon Wininger : Great Jewish National Biography. Vol. IV, Orient Printer, Chernivtsi 1930.
• Daniel Tscharny (Samuel Niger's brother): Mischpoche-Chronik. In: In Span 1926 (Issues I and II).
• Salman Reisen : Lekßikon fun der Yidischer literature un press. Vilnius 1926–1930, Volume IV.
• Leon Julius Silberstrom: Niger, Samuel. In: Georg Herlitz (Hrsg.): Jüdisches Lexikon . Volume IV, 1, Jüdischer Verlag, Berlin 1930.
• Shloyme Bikel, Leybush Teacher (Ed.): Shmuel Niger-bukh (Shmuel Niger memorial volume). Bibliotek fun YIVO , New York 1958.

Web links

• A photo of the Niger brothers