Beyder, Khayim
1920–December 7, 2003
He was a poet, journalist, and literary scholar, born in the Volhynian town of Kupel (Kupil), Khmelnytskyi district, Ukraine, a town only distinguished among hundreds of other Jewish shtetls in Volhynia and Podolia in the history of Jewish culture in that in 1796 there was already a Yiddish printing house there, one of the first such Jewish printers in the Russian empire.
His father, a furrier, was unable to read or write, but he wanted his children—two sons and three daughters—to be educated persons. In his early years, Khayim became proficient in Yiddish literature and tried to write some things on his own. His poem, “In Lager” (In Camp), was published in 1933 in the Yiddish youth newspaper Zay Greyt (Be Ready!), which came out in Kharkov, capital of Ukraine at the time, and in 1935 it was included in the collection Kinder-Shafung (Children’s Creative Work), assembled by Leyb Kvitko and Itsik Grinzayd. This was his debut piece and also the main reason that one year later he was accepted into the Odessa Jewish Pedagogical Technicum. From that point forward, he would spend years in apprenticeship and creative growth.
After one year of study as a student in the Zhitomir Jewish Rabfak (workers’ department) in the Yiddish department of the Odessa Pedagogical Institute, he became involved in the turbulent literary environs in which Note Lurye, Irme Druker, Khane Vaynerman, Ayzik Huberman, and a number of other Yiddish writers were active. Frequent arrivals to Odessa—from Moscow, Kiev, and Minsk—included Arn Gurshteyn, Yekhezkl Dobrushin, Perets Markish, Izi Kharik, and Shmuel Halkin, and it was in this environment that the young poet found himself a fish in water. His poetry was published in the Yiddish serials: Yunge Gvardye (Young Guard), Der Shtern (The Star), Der Emes (The Truth), and Sovetish (Soviet). His last prewar publication appeared in the Moscow almanac Sovetish (no. 12, 1941, dedicated to Sholem-Aleichem): the ballad “Nervi” which Perets Markish took from him during his last visit to Odessa. With his teaching degree in hand, in 1940 he began working in a Russian school in the village of Zlatoustivka (Dnipropetrovs'ka region, Ukraine), teaching Russian language and literature (at that time, the Yiddish schools everywhere in the Soviet Union had been closed).
In the autumn of 1941, he was evacuated to Turkmenistan, and there he worked in the Russian and Turkmen press in the city of Dasoguz, and published poems and correspondence pieces in the Moscow serial Eynikeyt (Unity). In March 1946, he returned to Ukraine, settled in the city of Khmel'nyts'kyy (Proskurov), worked for the local Ukrainian newspaper, and published in Eynikeyt and the Kiev almanac Der Shtern.
In 1947 the Yiddish section of the Ukrainian writers’ union arranged a meeting with him, during which Dovid Hofshteyn appeared and had a word to say about his writings. The young poet was about to bring out his first collection of poems, but this did not materialize: repressions began.
Between 1946 and 1970, Beider worked for the Ukrainian press, published essays in the field of Ukrainian literary research, wrote poetry in Ukrainian, and worked as a teacher and for certain amount of time as director of a Ukrainian middle school in a village far from Kam"yanets'-Podil's'kyy district. He gave lectures on Ukrainian literature, worked on a dissertation on the life and work of the Ukrainian writer, diplomat, and political figure, Ivan (Yisroel) Kulik (who in 1937 was a victim of a Stalinist purge).
In 1970 he left Kam”yanets’-Podil’s’kyy [Kamenetz-Podolsk, Kamianets-Podilskyi] with his family and moved to Leningrad. Over the period 1971-1972, he lived in Birobidzhan. Accepting the invitation on the editorial board of Sovetish Heymland (Soviet Homeland), he settled in Moscow (1973) and became the replacement for the chief editor. Thus began the most fruitful period of his writing. Now he was not only a poet, but he was also an editor, a literature scholar, a teacher in the Yiddish group of the senior literary courses for young writers. He wrote the libretto for the first event of the newly established Yiddish musical theater in Moscow: “A Shvartz Tsayml far a Vays Ferdl” (A Little Black Bridle on a Little White Horse) in 1978. He created textbooks for Jewish schools, and he wrote some 1000 entries for the Russian Jewish encyclopedia (1994-1997) on the creators of Yiddish literature.
From 1996 he was living in New York, publishing articles in the Yiddish press. In the latter half of 1998, he served as editor of the oldest Yiddish serial Di Tsukunft (The Future). While still living in Moscow, he had become a member of the Russian writers’ union, a cultural leader in the Russian Federation, winner of the Atran Prize of the Congress for Jewish Culture (1991) and of the Dovid Hofshteyn Prize (2000) in Israel. He worked for the newspaper Forverts (Forward) and was in charge of a literary section “Frish in Zikorn” (Recently Remembered) in the weekly Forverts hour.
He died on December 7, 2003 in New York.
His works include:
Khanukas habayis, Lider un Balades (House-Warming, Poems and Ballads) (Moscow: Sovetski Pisatel, 1979), 134 pp.;
Breyte Rakhvesn (Broad Spaciousness) (Moscow: Sovetski Pisatel, 1986), 60 pp.;
Tsu der Mendele-Forshung (On Mendele Research) (Moscow: Sovetski Pisatel, 1986), 61 pp., literary essays;
Di Vegn, Vos Mir Antdekn, Fartseykhenungen, Eseyen, Literatur-Forsherishe Artiklen, Lirishe Reportazhn (The Paths That We Discover, Jottings, Essays. Literary Research Articles, Lyrical Reportage Pieces) (Moscow: Sovetski Pisatel, 1991), 636 pp.;
“A Shvartz Tsayml far a Vays Ferdl,” a Libretto in Verse (1980);
Alef-Beys, with thee other authors (Khabarovsk, 1982);
Yidish, Grafik un Fonetik (Kishenev, 1992), textbook for beginners; Y
idisher Alef-Beys in Bilder (Yiddish Alphabet in Pictures) (Moscow, 1990);
Yidishe Folks-Vertlekh (Yiddish Folk Sayings) (Moscow: Malysh, 1990), 12 pp.;
Retenishn (Puzzles) (Moscow: Malysh, 1990); and assorted translations into Russia.
He was the author of Leksikon fun Yidishe Shrayber in Ratn Farband (Biographical Dictionary of Yiddish Writers in the Soviet Union), New York, 2011 [an important source in this digital lexicon].
Beider Chaim Vulkovich (Бейдер Хаим Вулькович) is credited as compiler for the below beautifully illustrated Alef-Beys book from 1990. The illustrator is Kazak Natalya Vladimirovna (Казак Наталья Владимировна).
Sources: A. Emkin, “An Ovnt fun a Yungn Dikhter” (An Evening for a Young Writer), Eynikeyt (Moscow) (July 8, 1947); Sovetish Heymland, Materyaln far a Leksikon fun der Yidisher Sovetisher Literatur (Material for a Handbook of Soviet Jewish Literature) (September 1975).
Beider Chaim Vulkovich (Бейдер Хаим Вулькович) is credited as compiler for this beautiful illustrated Alef-Beys book from 1990. The illustrator is Kazak Natalya Vladimirovna (Казак Наталья Владимировна).
Photos courtesy of the Russian State Library (Moscow), Oriental Centre.
Khayim Beyder edited Reader for students in elementary school Leyenbukh: far shiler fun der onfang-shul by Aron Vergelis.- Khabarovsk: Khabarovsker bikher-farlag, 1989.- 199, [2] pp., ill.
לײענבוך : פאר שילער פון דער אנפאנג-שול
ארן װערגעליס
Khayim Beyder edited several poetic editions published in Moscow: Sovetski pisatel.
יארן פון געװיטער: לידער
מאטל גרוװמאן
ברײטע װעלטן: לידער. פאעמע
מאקס ריאנט
לידער. באלאדעס. פאעמעס
מױשע טײף
Khayim Beyder was mentioned as a compiler of Leyb Kvitko's poetry for children Di Khoydlke: lider (Swing: poems).- Moscow, 1991.- [12] pp, ill.
די הױדלקע: לידער
לײב קװיטקא
Чапля, Владимир Тимофеевич (1938-2017) - artist
Khayim Beyder contributed to the literary collection Horizontn: Fun der hayntsaytiker sovetisher Yidisher dikhtung (Horizons: from modern Soviet Yiddish poetry) red. Aron Vergelis; kinstler - G. Kravtsov.- Moskve: Sovetski pisatel; Sovetish Heymland, 1965.- 533 [3] pp., portr.
האריזאנטן: פון דער הײנטצײטיקער סאװעטישער ײדישער דיכטונג
רעד. ארן װערגעליס; קינסטלער ג. קראװצאװ
Вергелис, Аарон Альтерович (1918-1999) - editor
Кравцов, Гершон Абрамович (1906-1981) - artist
Khayim Beyder contributed to the literary collection Birobidzhan - a kant a vayter un noenter: Verk fun sovetishe Yidishe shrayber (Birobidzhan - the land far and near: works of Soviet Yiddish writers) red. Aron Vergelis.- Moskve: Sovetski pisatel, 1984.- 540, [4] pp.
ביראבידזשאן - א קאנט א װײטער און נאענטער: װערק פון סאװעטישע ײדישע שרײבער
רעד. ארן װערגעליס
Khayim Beyder translated from Russian into Yiddish Di gliklekhe erd fun Valdheym: kinstlerish-dokumentale dertseylung vegn dem kolvirt "Ilitshs gebotn" (orig.: Счастливая земля Валдгейма: Худож.-докум. повествование о колхозе "Заветы Ильича"=Happy land of Valdheym: fictional documentary storytelling about collective farm "Il'yich's Testaments") by N. Ayzman, A. Tshernyavski, L. Shkolnik; iberzetsung fun Kh. Beyder; kinstler - I.M. Girel.- Khabarovsk, 1984.- 112, 112, [8] ill. This edition is bilingual.
די גליקלעכע ערד פון װאלדהײם: קינסטלעריש- דאקומענטאלע דערצײלונג װעגנ דעמ קאלװירט ”איליטשס געבאטנ
נ. אײזמאנ, א. טשערניאװסקי, ל. שקאלניק; איבערזעצונג פונ כ. בײדער
Айзман, Наум Иосифович (1927-1996) - author
Чернявский, Александр Григорьевич (1936-?) - author
Школьник, Леонид Борисович (1945-2019) - author
Гирель, Ида Моисеевна (1927-?) - artist