Ḥayyim Solomon Kazdan

KAZDAN, ḤAYYIM SOLOMON (Shlomo; 1883–1979), Yiddish educator, editor, and essayist. A teacher in Yiddish schools in Eastern Europe, Kazdan began his career in 1902 as a teacher in the Girls' Professional School in his native Kherson (Ukraine). As contributor to pedagogical journals, textbook writer, supervisor of schools and classroom teacher, he advanced the teaching of Yiddish language and literature. Kazdan was active in Jewish Socialist circles in Kherson, Kiev, and Warsaw. In the 1930s, he was the director of C.Y.S.O. (Central Yiddish School Organization) in Warsaw. He was a key figure among those educators who believed that Yiddish was not only an educational means but also an end in itself. Fleeing the Nazis, Kazdan arrived in the U.S. in 1941, where for more than a decade he was instructor at the Workmen's Circle high school ("mitlshul"), and from 1955 professor of Yiddish language and literature at the Jewish Teachers Seminary. The author of many books and monographs, his major works are: In di Teg fun Revolutsye ("In the Days of the Revolution," 1928); In Eyner a Shtot ("Once in a City," 1928); Di Geshikhte fun Yidishn Shulvezn in Umophengikn Poyln ("The History of the Jewish School System in Independent Poland," 1947); and Fun Kheyder un Shkoles biz Tsisho ("From Kheyder and Shkoles to Tsisho," 1956).

Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.