Nathan Eliezer Goren (Greenblatt) — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Writer, Critic 1887 – 1956

Born in the town of Vidzy, Kovno Governorate, he was educated in the Torah institutions of Slabodka, where he secretly became acquainted with modern Hebrew literature. At the age of sixteen, he moved alone to Vilnius, where he continued his sacred studies while also drawing closer to Jewish literary circles and activists of the Poale Zion party. He quickly became active in the revolutionary movement of 1905, and for this activity, he was imprisoned for two years. In 1910, he went into exile in Odessa for fear of further imprisonment, and there he grew close to Bialik, Druyanov, and Mendele, as well as to the circle of young Jewish creators in the city.

His first Hebrew story was published in the collection "Tal" (1910). Subsequently, he published poems, stories, and critical essays in the prominent Hebrew forums of the time, and concurrently in Yiddish newspapers. In 1917, he moved to Moscow, where he started a family and wandered with them until settling in Kaunas, Lithuania (1921).

In Kaunas, he was among the founders of the Yiddish artists' group "Mir Alein" ("We Ourselves") and published the early works of writers in Yiddish and Hebrew, including Leah Goldberg and Nach Stern, in the various forums he was responsible for editing. Many of the writers were his students. He taught in two gymnasiums and at the "Tarbut" teachers' seminary and headed the Association of Hebrew Teachers in Lithuania. During this period, he published the novels "On the Slope" (1929) and "In the Twilight of Her Life" (1935), as well as a monograph in Yiddish on Y.L. Gordon (1929).

On the eve of his immigration to the Land of Israel with his family (1935), he earned a master's degree from the Faculty of History at Kaunas University. In the Land of Israel, he wrote regularly for several years for "Haaretz" and "Davar" and participated in editing various anthologies and periodicals. Concurrently, he taught and engaged in public activity. In 1938, he published the book "Batya Hen," a roman à clef with autobiographical elements. In 2014, his book "Chapters of Bialik: A Collection of Essays and Notes," first printed in 1948, was reissued with an introduction by Ziva Shamir.

From: Gideon Tikotzki, Heksherim Lexicon of Israeli Literature