Oyved, Moyshe
OYVED, MOYSHE
OYVED, MOYSHE (Good (né Gudak ), Edward ; 1885–1958), Yiddish writer, artist, sculptor, and gem expert. Oyved was born in Skempe, Poland and came to England in 1903, settling in the East End of London. Working as a watchmaker, he began trading in antique watches and cameo brooches and founded Cameo Corner, a shop for antique jewelry patronized by the fashionable, including the royal family. His first Yiddish book, Aroys fun Khaos (1917; Out of Chaos, 1918), was followed by Lebns Lider ("Life's Songs," 1924); in Visions and Jewels (1925), a collection of 124 autobiographical stories and short tales, he wrote about Nahum *Sokolow, Max *Nordau, Sholem *Asch, Jacob *Epstein, and others; the deluxe The Book of Affinity, 1935, had original color lithographs by Jacob Epstein. At 60 he began to sculpt, creating works such as "Ram with Candelabra" and "Community of Israel," lamenting the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust. The London Yiddish literary circle that included Kafka's friend Dora Diamant issued Loshn un Lebn, 69 (1945) to celebrate his 60th birthday. His papers are at the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem.
bibliography:
lynl, 6 (1965), 570–1. add. bibliography: Rejzen, Leksikon, 2 (1927), 721–2; L. Prager, Yiddish Culture in Britain (1990), 502–3; D. Mazower, The Ben Uri Story … (2001), 37–58.
[Charles Samuel Spencer /
Leonard Prager (2nd ed.)]