Elye Falkovitsh (1898–1979) was a Belarusian-Jewish Yiddish linguist.[1][2] He received the Order of Lenin for his work as a medical orderly during World War II. Falkovitsch published works on Yiddish orthography and grammar.
Early life edit
Born in Gomel in the Mogilev Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus), Falkovitsh lived there until age 19.[1] In 1917 and 1918, he was the headmaster of a Jewish school in Sarapul.[1] Afterwards, he temporarily moved to Kiev, where he was the director of a children's club in 1918 and 1919 before becoming a cultural worker for the Red Army in 1920 and 1921.[1]
Mid-life edit
Studying at Moscow State University in 1921 and 1922, Falkovitsh later worked for the Commissariat of Enlightenment.[1] Afterwards, Falkovitsh worked as a lecturer on Yiddish linguistics at the Second Moscow State University (later known as the Moscow Teachers' Training Institute) and at the Communist University of the National Minorities of the West.[1] Falkovitsh, together with Ayzik Zaretski, was central in molding the standards of Soviet Yiddish in regards to lexicon, grammar, style, and orthography .[1] After advocating the study of the Pentateuch and the works of Hayim Nahman Bialik and Sholem Asch, Falkovitsh temporarily lost his positions in 1937.[1]
Later life edit
Falkovitsh volunteered to join the Red Army and worked as a medical orderly during World War II, saving the lives of 88 wounded people in one battle and thus receiving the Order of Lenin.[1] After the war, Falkovitsh was editor in chief of the Moscow Yiddish Publishing House Emes until it was liquidated in 1948.[1] Starting from 1961, Falkovitsh helped shape a revised Yiddish orthography.[1] In addition, Falkovitsh also published two grammatical sketches of Yiddish, one in a monograph on Soviet national languages (1966) and the other (posthumously) as an appendix to a Russian-Yiddish dictionary (1984).[3] Falkovitsh died in 1979 at age 80 or 81.[1]
References edit
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "YIVO | Falkovitsh, Elye". Yivoencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
- ^ "Archive of Eliyahu Falkovitsh – Author and Yiddish Linguist – Russia | Kedem Auction LTD". Kedem Auction House. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
- ^ Nath, Holger (December 2009). "The Passive in Soviet Yiddish" (PDF). Center for Language and Cognition Groningen. pp. 182–199. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-08-12. Retrieved 2016-05-09.