Helene Khatskels
{{short description|Yiddish children's educator and writer}}
{{Orphan|date=August 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2020}}{{Infobox person
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| name = Helene Khatskels
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| image = Helene Khatskels 1920s.jpg
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| native_name = העלענע כאצקעלס
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1882|07|25|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Kovno, Russian Empire
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1973|01|26|1882|07|25|df=yes}}
| death_place = Kovno (Kaunas), Soviet Union
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| known_for = Yiddish educator, writer
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| awards = Order of the Red Banner of Labour
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Helene Khatskels ({{langx|yi|העלענע כאצקעלס}}, 25 July 1882 – 26 January 1973) was a children's educator, translator and writer in the Russian Empire, Lithuania and the Soviet Union.
Biography
The daughter of a baker, Khatskels was active as a Bundist early in her life and a supporter of the 1905 Revolution, she subsequently turned to children's education.{{cite web |last1=Hoge |first1=Kerstin |title=Helene Khatskels |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/khatskels-helene |website=jwa.org |publisher=Jewish Women's Archive |access-date=15 September 2020}} As part of the Kultur-lige, which promoted Jewish autonomy, Khatskels produced an extensive range of works in Yiddish, including a travelogue on Palestine,{{cite journal|last1=Hoge|first1=Kerstin|date=2007|title=Don't mention the language war! Helene Khatskels's Palestinian travelogues in the Yiddish children's journal Grininke beymelekh|url=https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC108596|journal=Slavic Almanac: The South African Journal for Slavic, Central and Eastern European Studies|language=en|volume=13|issue=2|pages=146–169|hdl=10520/EJC108596|issn=1025-3386}} “The Earth and the Universe,” published in Berlin in 1924,{{cite web|title=Vilnius Yiddish Reading Circle turns to Lithuanian Yiddish women educators|url=https://en.delfi.lt/culture/vilnius-yiddish-reading-circle-turns-to-lithuanian-yiddish-women-educators.d?id=69749424|access-date=15 September 2020|website=DELFI|language=en}} and translations of the work of Swedish geographer Sven Hadin.{{Cite journal|last=Bar-El|first=Adina|date=2013|title=Jewish children's periodicals in Poland between the two world wars - in three languages|url=https://www.infona.pl//resource/bwmeta1.element.cejsh-ad7bdcf1-a669-4528-87ce-22e14b932cbc|journal=Rocznik Historii Prasy Polskiej|language=en|volume=1(31)|issue=16|page=24|issn=1509-1074}} With the suppression of the Kultur-Lige and other institutions of Jewish autonomy by Lithuanian authorities in the 1920s{{Cite journal|last=Gringauz|first=Samuel|date=1952|title=Jewish National Autonomy in Lithuania (1918-1925)|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/4465080|journal=Jewish Social Studies|volume=14|issue=3|pages=225–246|jstor=4465080|issn=0021-6704}} her work turned to teaching.{{cite web |last1=Rosenthal (Schneiderman) |first1=Esther |title=Helene Khatskels 1882-1973 |url=https://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/iiddica/Khronologye/y_20yh/Khatskels/kha_biog.html |website=Bibliotheca Augustana |publisher=Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter, 1971) |access-date=15 September 2020}} Forced to flee following the German occupation of Lithuania, she returned to her birthplace after World War Two. She set up a Yiddish school for orphans, but this was closed in 1950 as part of the wider anti-cosmopolitan campaign at the end of Stalin's rule. In 1955 she was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour and finished her career teaching Russian literature at secondary school level, retiring in 1966.
Works
- [https://jewishcurrents.org/the-sun-has-not-risen-yet-the-dutch-are-still-asleep/ The sun has not woken yet, the Dutch are still asleep] (English translation)
- [https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/yiddish-books/spb-nybc205180/khatskels-helene-di-natur-arum-unz-un-mir-aleyn-a-lernbukh-far-folkshuln די נאטור ארום אונז און מיר אליין : א לערנבוך פאר פאלקשולן] (Di naṭur arum unz un mir aleyn a lernbukh far folkshuln), 1922, Yiddish Book Center
References
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Category:Yiddish-language writers
Category:Translators to Yiddish
Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Category:Travel writers from the Russian Empire
Category:Lithuanian travel writers
Category:19th-century Lithuanian Jews