Kurtz, Aaron
KURTZ, AARON
KURTZ, AARON (1891–1964), Yiddish poet and editor. Born in Vitebsk, he wandered in Russia for five years as a wigmaker's apprentice and immigrated to the United States in 1911. In 1916 he began to publish Yiddish lyrics; at first he was attracted to the *In-Zikh movement and participated in its annuals, but he later joined the Association of Yiddish Proletarian Writers. In his third volume of verse, Plakatn ("Placards," 1927), he introduced a new form of poetry, which he called "placard style," which sought to reproduce the kaleidoscopic metropolis. The volumes Di Goldene Shtot ("The Golden City," 1935), ¡No Pasaran! (1938), and Mark Shagal (1946) dealt, respectively, with New York, the Spanish republicans, and the painter, whose soul like his own was rooted in Jewish Vitebsk and who continued to seek a world of justice and pure love.
bibliography:
Rejzen, Leksikon, 3 (1929), 616–18; B. Green, in: Yidishe Kultur (November 1964), 35–39. add. bibliography: lnyl, 8 (1981), 177–78; H. Gold, Unzder Bukh (1926), 371–73; J. Glatstein, ibid., 53–54; L. Khanukov, Literarishe Eseyen (1960), 108–21.
[Sol Liptzin]