Elye Gordon

Ilya Zinovyevich Gordon (Russian: Илья Зиновьевич Гордон; 15 December [O.S. 2 December] 1907 in Zelenopol – 28 February 1989 in Moscow), better known as Elye Gordon (Yiddish: אלי גאָרדאָן‎), was a Soviet Yiddish author. He was born in Zelenopol, a Jewish agricultural colony in Russia near Yekaterinoslav, now in (Ukraine), but grew up in an orphanage in Berdyansk. Gordon studied at the Yiddish language departments (rabfak) of the Odessa Pedagogical Institute, then Moscow Pedagogical Institute. As a volunteer for the Red Army during World War II, Gordon was twice decorated with the Order of the Red Banner. Wartime themes would also figure in his literary work.

Elye Gordon debuted in 1930 with two books (a novel Vildgroz, Wild grass, and a collection of short stories Af griner erd, On the green soil) and over the years published several more novels and numerous short stories in many Soviet Yiddish publications, collected in at least 14 books.

• "Vildgroz" (1930)
• "Af griner erd" (1930)
• "Ingul-Boyar" (1935)
• "In a gosregn" (1937)
• "Dray brider" (1938)
• "Dertseylungen un noveln" (1939)
• "In eygene kantn" (the novel "Dray brider" and short stories) (1969)
• "Unter der heyser zun" (1978)
• "Laykht-turem" (1989)

Sources

• Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur