Nahum Shtiff, the famous Yiddish philologist, best known by his pen name, Baal Dimyon, who died at Kiev April 7, was for the last seven years director of the philological section of the Institute for Jewish Proletarian Culture in Kiev, and editor of the Yiddish philological journal, “Shprachfront.”
Baal Dimyon, who was 54 years of age, had left Russia after the Bolshevist Revolution, and lived in Berlin till the summer of 1926, when he returned to Russia and took up his position in Kiev. The Yiddish Communist organ, “Emess,” reported his first appearance at a class for Jewish teachers in Kiev in the following way: When he entered the classroom, the teachers received him in silence. They waited for him to speak first. They felt glad that he had come, so that he could tell them what was happening in Yiddish literature in the European countries. At the same time, however, they knew that he had been one of the emigres, and they were not sure of his attitude towards the Soviet regime.
Shtiff realized what was wanted from him, and he began: Comrades, after many years’ wandering abroad I have returned to Russia. My first word is one of hearty greeting to the Soviet Government. Together with other oppressed people, the Soviet Government has emancipated us Jews. Thanks to the Soviet Government we have been given an opportunity of conducting our scientific work in the field of the Yiddish language. Long live the Soviet Government, our emancipator!
Shtiff was born in Rovno, in Volyunia. He started writing at the age of twelve, using Hebrew as his medium. After the first Zionist Congress in Basel, he became a Zionist, and founded a students’ radical Zionist group. At the time of the Kishinev pogrom he was one of the founders and leaders of the Jewish Self-Defense. He was imprisoned several times for his political activities. At one time he worked as an official in the Emigration Department of the Ica in Petersburg. In the early days of the War he was a representative of the Yekopo, conducting relief work among Jewish war refugees.
In 1916 he started a campaign to make Yiddish the language of instruction in the Jewish schools, and at a Conference in Petersburg he stated the case for Yiddish in answer to the Hebraist case stated there by Bialik.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
