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Oyzer GoldesJewish playwright, literary scholar, critic
Country:
 Moldova |
Content:
- Early Life and Education
- Teaching Career
- Literary Debut and Scholarship
- Plays and Folklore
- Translations and Textbooks
- Arrest and Rehabilitation
- Late Career and Publications
Early Life and Education
Oizer Goldes, a Jewish playwright, literary scholar, and critic, was born in 1900 in Kishinev to a watchmaker. He attended a Jewish school and later a Russian gymnasium in Berdichev. He studied at the Jewish department of the Philological Faculty at the Second Moscow University.
Teaching Career
From the age of 19, Goldes worked as a teacher in Berdichev, later in Kharkiv, and Kiev. In 1935-36, he was a research fellow at the Institute of Jewish Culture at the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR in Kiev.
Literary Debut and Scholarship
Goldes debuted as a poet in 1927 but soon turned to literary criticism, journalism, and research on classic Jewish literature and contemporary writers. He published several articles on Jewish literature, folklore, and the works of Sholem Aleichem.
Plays and Folklore
Goldes' plays "A Idisher Soldat" (The Jewish Soldier, 1938) and "Andérè Ménchn" (Other People, 1948), as well as other one-act scenes, were staged in Jewish and Ukrainian theaters. In 1941, he published a collection of retold tales, jokes, and witticisms by Hershele Ostropoller, the largest collection of its kind at the time.
Translations and Textbooks
Goldes also translated works of classical Russian literature into Yiddish and wrote textbooks on literature for Jewish schools.
Arrest and Rehabilitation
In 1951, Goldes was sentenced to 10 years in prison for anti-Soviet agitation. After his rehabilitation in 1955, he returned to Kharkiv.
Late Career and Publications
Goldes continued to publish in the journal "Sovietish Heymland" (Soviet Homeland) and in Ukrainian publications.
