Editing S. An-sky (section)

==Biography==
[[File:Ravnitzki An-ski Mocher Sforim Bialik Frug.jpg|thumb|250px|Odessa writers.  From left to right: Y. Ravnitzki, An-sky, [[Mendele Mocher Sforim]], [[H. N. Bialik]], S. Frug.  Published in [[Simon Dubnow]]'s newspaper in 1916]]
Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport was born in [[Chashniki]], [[Vitebsk Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]] (now [[Belarus]]), but spent his childhood in [[Vitebsk]]. He was from a poor religious family, and he had only a [[heder]] education. His mother ran a tavern. He left his home and moved to [[Liozno]] in his late-teens, and worked as a tutor; he was ostracised by his community for "disseminating radical ideas".<ref name="yivo">{{cite web |title=YIVO {{!}} Rapoport, Shloyme Zaynvl |url=https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Rapoport_Shloyme_Zaynvl |website=yivoencyclopedia.org |access-date=17 June 2024}}</ref> He wrote his first novel, "History of a Family", in Yiddish, it was translated and published in Russian in 1884.<ref name="yivo"/>

Rappoport was actively involved in revolutionary movements, initially as a populist (known as [[narodniki]]) and later as a member of the Socialist Revolutionary (SR) Party. At this time, he changed his name from Jewish to Russian, Semyon Akimovich. In 1880s, in the spirit of [[Going to the People]] movement,<ref>{{cite web |title=Jewish Heritage Online Magazine |url=https://www.jhom.com/personalities/ansky/peasantry.htm |website=www.jhom.com |access-date=19 June 2024}}</ref> popular among populists, he moved to [[Ekaterinoslav]] region, where he worked as a tutor and in the "salt- and coal-mining industry". He believed in the importance of the education of Russia's peasants and participated in activities such as collecting workers' songs and giving public readings, which led to his arrest in 1888. In 1892, he was introduced to the literary circles of St. Petersburg, where he started writing under the pen name S. An-sky. He moved to Paris in 1892 and lived in Europe until 1905. He mainly wrote in Russian, but eventually started to write in Yiddish too. He also worked as a secretary for Russian philosopher [[Petr Lavrov]] in Paris. He had a short marriage to a "French-Russian woman". After Lavrov's death, An-sky moved to Switzerland, where, together with [[Viktor Chernov]], he founded a populist Agrarian Socialist League. In 1904-1905, he was an editor of the Yiddish socialist journal ''Kampf un kempfer'' (The Fight and the Fighters).<ref name="yivo"/>

An-sky returned to Russia in 1905, after the revolution. He debated prominent figures like [[Simon Dubnow]], [[Chaim Zhitlowsky]], and [[Shmuel Niger]] on various issues, including Jewish revolutionary dedication, Christian imagery in Jewish literature, and the trilingual vision of modern Jewish literature. An-sky also became active in Jewish publishing, editing and contributing to several Jewish journals and encyclopedias. From 1908 to 1918, he traveled extensively, lecturing on Jewish cultural topics while remaining involved in Socialist Revolutionary politics. He published works on anarchism and revolutionary plays, and was arrested in 1907 "for disseminating revolutionary propaganda". He had another failed marriage in 1908, to Esther Glezerman.<ref name="yivo"/>

In 1912-1914, An-sky with a small team went for an ethnographic expedition to the Pale of Settlement, collecting thousands of photographs, folk tales, songs, and artefacts. {{sfn|Deutsch|2011|p=11-14}}<ref name="yivo"/> Based on the collected materials, An-sky wrote his most famous work, the play ''[[The Dybbuk]]''. It was soon translated to Yiddish, and is now regarded as one of the most famous plays of the [[Yiddish theatre]].

During the World War I and until the October Revolution of 1917, An-sky worked for Jewish Committee for the Relief of War Victims; in 1920 he published his memoir of this times, ''Khurbn Galitsye'' (The Destruction of Galicia).<ref name="yivo"/> After the revolution, he escaped to [[Vilnius|Vilna]] and then to Warsaw, where he died of a heart attack<ref name="yivo"/> on November 8, 1920.{{sfn|Deutsch|2011|p=12}}