Fliglman on the Left

Aaron Zeitlin

1932

Warsaw, October 17, 19321

Dear friend S. Niger,

When we speak about left and right, we should, first of all, enclose both words in thick quotation marks, and then we have to remember that true left and true right are both awfully rare. Their truths—however antagonistic the masks they wear—converge. It seems that this is precisely the reason that…

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Creator Bio

Aaron Zeitlin

1898–1973
A poet, writer, playwright, essayist, and editor Aaron Zeitlin (Arn Tseytlin) was the eldest son of Hillel Zeitlin and the brother of Elkhonen Zeitlin (1902–1942). Born in Homel (then Russian Gomel, now in Belarus), Zeitlin lived in Warsaw between 1907 and 1938. Beginning to write lyrical poetry as a child, Zeitlin was most prolific in interwar Warsaw. He participated in the debate over the role of Yiddish literature, attacking the politicization of Yiddish literature and developing an aesthetic of combining historical events with existential and mystical themes. He was the chair of the Yiddish PEN club from 1930 to 1934, and founded, with the help of Isaac Bashevis Singer, the literary monthly Globus. Zeitlin happened to be in New York at the outbreak of World War II. He was powerless to save the family he had left behind. He continued to write and teach in New York City. His postwar writing was preoccupied with the Holocaust and parapsychology.

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