Moyshe Kulbak (; ; 18961937) was a Belarusian Jewish writer who wrote in

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

Biography

Born in

Smarhon Smarhon, or Smorgon, is a town in Grodno Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Smarhon District. It was the site of Smarhon air base, now mostly abandoned. Smarhon is located from the capital, Minsk. As of 2025, it has a p ...

(present-day

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

, then in the Russian Empire) to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family, Kulbak studied at the famous Volozhin Yeshiva. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he lived in Kovno (today

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

, Lithuania), where he began to write poetry in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, before switching to Yiddish.Novershtern, Avraham (August 19, 2010).
Kulbak, Moyshe
" ''YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe''. yivoencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2016-12-25. He made his publishing debut in Yiddish in 1916, with the poem "Shterndl" (Little star). In 1918 he moved to the city of

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

; in 1919, after the Soviet Revolution, to Vilna (today

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, Lithuania); and in 1920 to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. In 1923 he came back to Vilna, which after the war had become part of newly independent

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, and was a center of Yiddish literary culture. In Vilna he taught modern Yiddish literature at the Real-Gymnasium (a Yiddish-speaking high school), as well as at the Yiddish teachers' seminary. By 1928 he became disappointed with the literary atmosphere in Poland, and decided to return to Minsk (capital of the Soviet Belarus), where much of his family lived, and where there was a lively Yiddish literary scene. In Minsk, Kulbak worked for several media organizations and for the Jewish section of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Kulbak wrote poems, fantastical or "mystical" novels, and, after moving to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, what are described by one source as "Soviet" satires. His novel '' The Zelmenyaners'' depicted with some realism the absurdities of Soviet life. His mystical novella '' The Messiah of the House of Ephraim'' (1924) draws together many strands of Jewish folklore and apocalyptic belief, presenting them from a perspective that owes much to

German expressionist cinema German expressionist cinema () was a part of several related creative movements in Germany in the early 20th century that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in Northweste ...

. It principally concerns the poor man Benye, who may or may not be a

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

, and whose destiny is intertwined with the Lamed-Vovniks. (In

Jewish mysticism Academic study of Jewish mysticism, especially since Gershom Scholem's ''Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'' (1941), draws distinctions between different forms of mysticism which were practiced in different eras of Jewish history. Of these, Kabbal ...

, the Lamed-Vovniks are a group of 36 holy Jews on whose goodness the whole of humanity depends.) Benye, and the many other characters, undergo experiences the strangeness of which approaches incomprehensibility, to themselves as well as the reader. Legendary figures such as

Lilith Lilith (; ), also spelled Lilit, Lilitu, or Lilis, is a feminine figure in Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology, theorized to be the first wife of Adam and a primordial she-demon. Lilith is cited as having been "banished" from the Garden of Eden ...

and Simkhe Plakhte are characters in the novel. In September 1937, Moyshe Kulbak was arrested during the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

. He was accused of

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

and executed a month later together with several dozens of other Belarusian writers, intellectuals and administrators. In 1956, after the death of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

, he was officially rehabilitated by the Soviet authorities. Moshe Kulbak

Bibliography

* ''Shirim'' (Poems), 1920. * ''Die Shtot'' (The Village) (Romantic poem), 1920. * ''Raysn'' ("Belarus") (Poems), 1922. * ''Lider'' (Poems), 1922. * ''Yankev Frank'' (Drama),1922. * ''Meshiekh ben Efrayine'' (Novel), 1924. ** ''The Messiah of the House of Ephraim'' - English translation in ''Yenne Velt'', ed. and trans. Joachim Neugroschel (1976; repr. New York: Wallaby, 1978). * ''Vilné'' (Poem), 1926. * ''Montag'' (Monday) (Novel), 1926. ** ''Lunes'' - Editado por el Círculo d´Escritores, 2014. * ''Bunye un Bere afn shliakh'' (Novel), 1927. * ''Zelminianer'' (Novela), 1931; ** (Russian edition translated by Rachel Boymvol), 1960 ** The Zelmenyaners: a family saga (English translation, 2013) ** Зельманцы (Belarusian version), Minsk, 1960 (2nd edition - 2015); **''Los Zelmenianos'' (Spanish version), Xordica editorial, Zaragoza, 2016. * ''Disner Childe Harold'' (Child Harold from Disna) (Satiric poem), 1933. * ''The Wind Who Lost His Temper'', ** English translation in ''Yenne Velt''. * ''Boitre'' (Dramatic poem), 1936. * ''Beniomine Maguidov'' (Play), 1937.

References

External links

Moyshe Kulbak books
in the Yiddish Book Center digital library (in Yiddish)
Lectures on Moyshe Kulbak's works
by Marc Caplan from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

and

University of Wroclaw A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kulbak, Moyshe 1896 births 1937 deaths People from Smarhon People from Oshmyansky Uyezd Jews from the Russian Empire Belarusian Jews Yiddish-language poets Yiddish-language novelists Jewish poets Soviet poets Belarusian male poets Belarusian satirists Soviet male writers Yiddish-language dramatists and playwrights 20th-century dramatists and playwrights Polish emigrants to the Soviet Union Jews executed by the Soviet Union Great Purge victims from Belarus Volozhin Yeshiva alumni