GORDIN, ABBA

GORDIN, ABBA (1887–1964), Yiddish and Hebrew writer. Born in Michalishek (Belorussia), Gordin received a traditional Jewish education and was self-taught in general subjects. He wrote in Hebrew, Russian, and English as well as in Yiddish. He remained true to his anarchist convictions even in Communist Russia. Resident in Moscow and Leningrad, in 1926 he escaped to New York, where he edited Yidishe Shriftn (1941–46). The last seven years of his life he lived in Israel and edited the Hebrew-Yiddish Problemot. In his early writings, he sought a synthesis of biblical Judaism and classical anarchism. He wrote Sotsiale Ibergloyberay un Kritik ("Social Superstitions and Criticism," 1941), Eseyen ("Essays," 1951). In Gerangl far Frayhayt: Rusland ("In Struggle for Freedom: Russia," 1956); and S. Yanovsky (1864–1939), a memorial volume for the anarchist leader (1957). His memoirs of the post-1917 years, Zikhroynes un Kheshboynes 1917–1924 ("Reminiscences and Reckonings 1917–1924," 1955–57) and Draysik Yor in Lite un Poyln: Oytobiografye ("Thirty Years in Lithuania and Poland: Autobiography," 1958) are of particular interest to students of the Bolshevik Revolution. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: LYNL, 2 (1958), 139–40. (Melech Ravitch / Leonard Prager (2nd ed.)