"I recently presented a paper on #KhaimZhitlovsky, a major proponent of #secular #Jewish #diaspora nationalism and Jewish nationhood, at the Association for #Canadian #JewishStudies annual conference at #YorkUniversity in #Toronto.

#Zhitlovsky was born in #Ushachi near #Vitebsk in what is now #Belarus in 1865. A leading architect of secular #Jewishculture and thought, he was a central figure in the progressive Jewish intelligentsia of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in #Canada and the #UnitedStates.

At a Jewish International Cultural Conference organized in #Paris in September 1937, the Alveltlekher #Yiddisher Kultur Farband (#YKUF) was founded, and he was one of the supporters. As the honorary president of the YKUF in the #UnitedStates, Zhitlovsky became an icon of the #Yiddishist #Communist movement, particularly in western Canada, where he had inspired the founding of a strong secular #Yiddish school system."

https://jewishpostandnews.ca/features/a-left-wing-yiddishist-in-western-canada/