Soviet Encyclopedia Lists Work of I. L. Peretz in Special Article

The eighth volume of the Soviet Literary Encyclopedia, just issued, devotes more than four columns to I. L. Peretz, who is described as one of the classic writers of Yiddish literature. There is also a full-page portrait of him.

The article, written by Prof. Nusinoff, is one of the few essays listed in the table of contents, where it appears under the head of “Special Articles.”

The volume also contains appreciations of S. Niger, M. J. Olgin, J. Opatoshu, Ber Orshansky, Nahum Auslander and S. Persoff, all distinguished Jewish literary figures.

Prof. Nusinoff’s account tells of Peretz as a short story writer, playwright and poet, as well as an active social worker. It stresses in particular the period when he turned to the working masses, expressed in his works, “In the Cellar,” “Bontze Shweig,” and “The Three Seamstresses.”

Peretz was at fault in viewing things from the viewpoint of the class doomed to disappear, the article says.

In the period of the 1905 revolution,” Prof. Nusinoff writes, Peretz stood close to the revolutionary movement, lectured to workers and tried to create a Labor University.

In later years he expressed his sympathy with the labor movement and socialism but, according to the account of the professor, the leading motives in Peretz’s work are petty bourgeois humanism and Jewishness.

“But Peretz had a colossal influence on Yiddish literature and the whole of Jewish culture in his time. He was an exceptionally bold and clear creative personality, and is still today deserving of study.”

Niger is described as the epitome of idealistic esthetic criticism which denies the class war within the Jewish people. According to the Encyclopedia, Niger is a bitter foe of Communism.