Hirschkahn, Ẓvi
HIRSCHKAHN, ẒVI
HIRSCHKAHN, ẒVI (pseudonym of Ẓvi Hirsch Cohen ; 1886–1938), Yiddish novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Born in Tzasnik (Belorussia), as a youth Hirschkahn became involved in the Socialist Revolutionary Party and left Russia in 1905, settling for several years in Switzerland. When he returned to Russia, he began his literary career, publishing an essay in Chaim *Zhitlovsky'sDos Naye Lebn (1908) under the pseudonym Zvi Girschkahn. His first novel, Tsvey Veltn ("Two Worlds," 1910), describes a Jewish city in Belorussia at the beginning of the 20th century and established his reputation as a talented writer. In 1921, Hirschkahn left the Soviet Union and settled in Germany before immigrating to the U.S. in 1925, where he became a regular contributor to Der Tog and, in 1934, the Morgn-Frayhayt. His other books include Fun Dervaytns ("From Afar," 1918), Nit Hinter a Ployt ("Not Behind a Fence," 1919), Unter Eyn Dakh ("Under One Roof," 1931), and Akhad Ha-Am, a biographical novel (1933). He was at various times a Socialist, a Zionist, an anarchist, and a Communist.
bibliography:
Rejzen, Leksikon, 1 (1928), 850–2; N. Goren, Demuyyot be-Sifrutenu (1953), 84–6; LNYL, 3 (1960), 165–7. add. bibliography: M. Olgin, Kultur un Folk (1949), 290–94; Tolush, Yidishe Shrayber (1953), 154–60.
[Gedalyah Elkoshi /
Marc Miller (2nd ed.)]