PESYE KAHANE

PESYE KAHANE (May 8, 1895-September 8, 1975)

            She was born in Satanov (Sataniv), Podolia.  She was orphaned early on.  She studied with her grandfather, a scholar and a Hassid, and with private tutors: Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian.  She later attended a secondary school in Proskurov.  From her earliest childhood years, she read books in Yiddish and general literature.  In 1908 she moved to the United States.  She studied at high school in Cleveland and was active contributing to the local Yiddish drama club.  She later settled in New York and for a time studied literature in university.  In 1920 she married the poet and essayist B. Y. Byalostotski.  That same year she published articles for the first time in the daily newspaper Di tsayt (The times), edited by Dovid Pinski.  Thereafter, over the course of the years 1926-1946, she published essays on writers and books in the periodicals: Der oyfkum (Arise), edited by Z. Vaynper, Byalostotski, and B. Lapin, in which she placed articles on Selma Lagerlöf’s Gosta Berling, Dovid Pinski’s work, Y. Y. Shvarts’s “Kentoki” (Kentucky), Naftole Gross’s poetry, and the like; Oyfgang (Arise), about Menakhem Boreysho’s Zavl rimer (Zavl Rimer); Unzer shul (Our school), about Naftole Gross’s Kinder mayses (Children’s stories) and Y. Metsker’s Toli un tobi (Toli and Tobi); Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor), about Yankev Kreplyak’s stories; Proletarisher gedank (Proletarian idea)—all in New York; Kanada (Canada), about H. Leivick’s poetry—in Montreal; Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), about Sh. Miler’s stories; and Vokhnshrift far literatur (Weekly writing for literature)—in Warsaw; among others.  She also wrote essays about the essence of literary criticism.  She died in New York.

Sources: Dr. A. Mukdoni, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (June 10, 1934); Shmuel Niger, in Tog (New York) (August 1935); N. Mayzil, in Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) (September 1937).

Borekh Tshubinski