Bass (Bezprozvany), Hyman B.

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BASS (Bezprozvany), HYMAN B.

BASS (Bezprozvany), HYMAN B. (1904–1983), Yiddish educator and essayist. Born in Vilnius (now Lithuania), Bass immigrated to New York in 1922 and taught in Yiddish schools. From 1953 he served as executive secretary of the *Congress for Jewish Culture and in 1966 as president of the Jewish Book Council of America. He edited textbooks for Yiddish schools and wrote extensively on Jewish education. His book of essays Undzer Dor Muz Antsheydn ("Our Generation Must Decide," 1963), embodied his ideas on Jewish education and cultural survival. S. *Dubnow, Y.L. *Peretz, and Chaim *Zhitlowsky were his mentors and he adapted their ideas to a mid-20th century American Jewish context.

bibliography:

lnyl, 1 (1956), 355–6. add. bibliography: ajyb 85 (1985), 412–3.

[Sol Liptzin]