Zitnitsky, Pincas (Pedro) Lázaro

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ZITNITSKY, PINCAS (Pedro) LÁZARO

ZITNITSKY, PINCAS (Pedro) LÁZARO (1894–1967), Argentine journalist, editor, and author. Born in Kiev, Zitnitsky studied law at Kiev, Koenigsberg, and Bonn. He emigrated to Argentina in 1928 and was active in the non-Zionist and Yiddishist left-wing sector of the Jewish community in Buenos Aires and presided over the Tzentral Veltlech Yiddishe Shul Organizatzie (tzvisho; Central Organization of Jewish Secular Schools) upon its foundation in 1934. He was also one of the directors and a member of the editorial board of the leftist Yiddish daily newspaper Di Presse of Buenos Aires. He became a professor of Slavic civilization at the Universidad Internacional de Latino-America, Buenos Aires, in 1959, and vice rector the following year. Zitnitsky was a prolific journalist and essayist. His books include Forerunners of Scientific Socialism (1928), The Meaning of History (1930), Peretz: Philosophy and Socialism (1951), and A Half-Century of Yiddish Literature (1952).