Leksikon fun der Nayer Yidisher Literatur

לעקסיקאָן פֿון דער נײַער ייִדישער ליטעראַטור

He was born in Vilna and received a secular Jewish education in public school, high school, and People’s University. He was one of the first research students in Vilna’s YIVO and among its youngest co-workers (1928-1935). He was active in the leftist movement.

In 1936 he received a stipend from Moscw University for National Minorities (“Mayrevke”); but immediately upon crossing the border, he and his wife were arrested (part of the mass arrests in the Soviet Union) -- falsely accused of being spies. They were deported to prisons and Gulag camps, including Soviet camps in exile, until their release in 1946.

Over the years 1947-1953, he lived in Havana, Cuba, where he served as administrator of the ORT (Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades) trade school and the Jewish center in Havana.

He was director and contributor to the Vilna YIVO archives in New York (1953-1958) and later worked as a typesetter.

In New York he organized the association Nusekh Vilne (Vilna Style). He turned his attention to collecting and publishing materials concerning Yiddish literature and Yiddish theater and especially Jewish Vilna.

He officially debuted in print in 1928 with a reportage piece in

Vilner Tog (Vilna Day)

But several children’s poems of his were already published in 1920 in

Grininke Beymelekh (Little Green Trees).

As one of the leaders of Bin (Bee), the Jewish socialist scout movement in Vilna, he co-edited its

Bin-Bletlekh (Bee Leaflets) (1929-1930) and

its journal Moyern (Walls) (4 issues, 1934-1935).

He also brought out (using the name Leyzer) the pamphlets:

Bin, 18 pp. and

Yidishizm (Yiddishism), 16 pp.

— both through the Bin-library (1934)

He also wrote songs (text and music) for Bin and for the theaters Davke (Necessarily) and Maidim. Some of these were published:

Hent un Tsigl (Hands and [Bricks]), musical leitmotif (Vilna, 1934), hectographically produced under the pen name Lazaranu;

Zingendik, Lider far Yugent (Singing, Songs for Youth) (Vilna, 1936), 2 booklets, 16 pp. each, using the pen name Raley.

He wrote and produced scout plays:

Bay Nakht Afn Vinter-Lager (In Winter Camp at Night),

Vi in Lager iz Geven (How it Was in Camp), and

Gerotfreyd (Harvest fun),

among others.

He translated for theatrical ensembles:

Ridley, A Tsug, a Geshpenst (A Train, a Specter) (1929)" is a 1929 Yiddish translation or adaptation of Arnold Ridley's famous 1925 thriller play, The Ghost Train. The play follows passengers trapped in a haunted station, often associated with translations by figures like Leyzer Ran;

Wolfie (?), Ikh Hob Bazigt dem Krizis (I Have Subdued the Crisis) (1935);

Mahali István, Ikh bin 26 Yor Alt (I’m Twenty-Six Years Old) (1935/1936).

From translated Soviet humorous sketches, he dramatized eighteen scenes for

Tsu Gast in Khotshitsa-Kolitsa (A Guest in Khochitsa-Kolitsa).

He contributed to the leftist weeklies:

Kurts (Short),

Nayes (News),

Vokh (Week), and

Tsaytung (Newspaper);

and he co-edited:

the scholarly journal Etyudn (Studies) (1934-1935) and

Oyfboy (Construction) (November 1934-January 1935).

After WWII, he edited the anthology

Bleter fun Vilne (Pages from Vilna) (Lodz: Vilner farband, 1947), 80 pp.

In Havana he published:

ORT Bulyetinen (Ort Bulletins) (1948-1949);

ORT-Yoyvl Almanakh (ORT Anniversay Almanac) (1950), 64 double pages;

and he edited Yiddish-Spanish anthologies:

Vegn Yidishe Kinder-Dertsiung in Kuba (On Jewish Children’s Education in Cuba) (1947), 20 pp.;

Hemshekh af Kubaner Erd (Continuity on Cuban Soil) (1951), 172 double pages;

Di Legende Perets (The Legend of Perets) (1952), 52 pp. (Yiddish) and 24 pp. (Spanish), and a supplement for school children (1952), 16 pp.;

Zog Nisht Keyn Mol, Yizker-Shrift Tsum…Varshever Geto (Don’t Say Never, Memorial Work for the Warsaw Ghetto) (1952), 68 pp.

He compiled:

Yoyvl Zamlung fun der Ley-Kase Baym Yidishn Froyen Farayn in Kuba, 1937-1952 (Anniversary Collection for the Loan Office of the Jewish Women’s Association in Cuba, 1937-1952) (Havana, 1952), 104 pp.; and

Mit der Perets-Fon, Mit der Shvartsman-Traditsye, Yidish-Sovetishe Shrayber in Gezang un Gerangl far Folk un Heymland, Mitn Fon, Mitn Biks, Mit Layb un Lebn, Kredos-Antologye (With the Perets Banner and the Schwartzman Tradition, Soviet Yiddish Writers in Song and Struggle for the People and Homeland, with Banner, with Gun, with Life and Soul, Kredos Anthology) (New York: Workmen’s Circle, 1982), 66 pp.

He also contributed to local Yiddish publications in Cuba and to Zalmen Zilbertsavyg’s

Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater (Lexicon of the Yiddish Theater), and

Leksikon fun der Nayer Yidisher Literatur (vol. 1-8). New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Marstin Press, 1956-1981.

He served as secretary to the editorial board of

Algemeyne Entsiklopedye (General Encyclopedia), “Yidn (Jews),” vol. 4-5.

Portions of Ran’s monograph on Jews in Cuba were published in the collection:

Hemshekh af Kubaner Erd and

Algemeyne Entsiklopedye (General Encyclopedia), “Yidn,” vol. 4 (New York, 1957), pp. 421-35.

For the second (unpublished) volume of Arkhiv fun Yidishn Teater (Archive of the Yiddish Theater), he submitted a work entitled

“Yidn-Daytsh Teater in Odes (1862-1872)” (Judeo-German Theater in Odessa, 1862-1872).

A piece of a work being prepared for the publisher under the title

Tsu der Geshikhte fun Yidish Teater in Vilne (On the History of Yiddish Theater in Vilna)

was published in

Yidish Teater in Eyrope Tsvishn Beyde Velt-Milkhomes (Yiddish Theater in Europe Between the Two World Wars), vol. 1 (New York, 1968), pp. 228-64,

and a chapter on Hebrew theater in Vilna appeared in

Haḥinukh vehatarbut haivrit beeyropa ben shete milḥamot haolam (Hebrew Education and Culture in Europe Between the Two World Wars) (New York, 1957).

Together with Menakhem Flakser and Alexander Pomerants, he compiled for YIVO a bibliography of Yiddish literature in Soviet Russia, 1917-1948.

In manuscript he prepared a geographical index of Jewish communities in Europe, some of which material appeared in

Der Groyser Yidisher Verterbukh (The Great Yiddish Dictionary) (New York: 1961-).

He published a volume of

Lider (Poems) by Leyzer Volf, with a preface by H. Leivick and an introduction and bibliography (New York, 1955), 204 pp.

He prepared lists of the murdered Soviet Jewish writers, artists, and painters, a part of which was published in

Folks-Mishpet (People’s Judgment) (New York, 1956).

Ran discovered four variants of

Y. L. Perets’s Monish and

Kise Shloyme (Solomon’s Throne)

—published in YIVO-Bleter (YIVO Monthly Bulletin), special Perets issue (1937).

In addition to the aforementioned works, he published:

Ash fun Yerusholáyim D’líte (Ashes from Jerusalem of Lithuania), essays (New York: Vilner Farlag, 1959), 366 pp.;

Fun Elye Bokher biz Hirsh Glik, Kartn-Leksikon (From Elye Bokher to Hirsh Glik, a [Trading] Card Biographical Dictionary), covering 400 years of Yiddish literature (New York, 1963), 100 cards and a forty-page pamphlet;

Hirsh Glik’s Der Himn fun Yidishn Vidershtand (The Hymn of the Jewish Resistance), in eleven languages with music (New York, 1972), 16 pp.;

Yerusholaim Delite, Ilustrirt un Dokumentirt (Jerusalem of Lithuania, Illustrated and Documented), a thematic guide for 500 years of Jewish life and creativity in Vilna, with explanations in Yiddish, Hebrew, English, and Russian, and a multi-lingual, topical bibliography [in vol. 3] (New York, 1974-1975), 3 vols., 1000 pp. in album format.

Among his pen names: H. Reysh, Raley, Lazaranu, Leyzer, and L-n.

He died in New York.

A collection of his documents was donated to the Leyzer Ran Archive at Harvard University. Click here for a PDF description of the archive -- or click here to view the detailed online catalog of his archive.