Itche Goldberg, 102, Yiddish cultural leader

Itche Goldberg, 102, a Polish-born Jew who became a fixture in the communist struggle of the 1920s and 1930s and later emerged as a writer, editor, publisher and teacher of Yiddish language and culture, died of cancer Dec. 27 at his New York home.

After his family resettled in Canada, Mr. Goldberg became involved in a Jewish fraternal group called the Workmen's Circle. He became a Yiddish instructor, first in Canada, then in Philadelphia and New York.

He was part of an ideological movement that used Yiddish to teach and to engage Jews in the international proletarian struggle.

He became a leading cultural figure in the International Workers Order, a communist-affiliated insurance and fraternal organization that splintered from the Workmen's Circle. He once said of the split, around 1930: "There was no question about our Jewishness or Jewish consciousness, and the Jewish consciousness led us very naturally to the Soviet Union.

"Here was Romania, anti-Semitic. Poland, which was anti-Semitic. Suddenly we saw how Jewish culture was developing in the Soviet Union. It was really breathtaking.

"You had the feeling that both the national problem was solved and the social problem was solved. This was no small thing. It was overpowering, and we were young."

(Mr. Goldberg gradually came to realize the horrors of Stalinist Russia, specifically its murderous treatment of Jews. As editor of Yiddishe Kultur - a literary and cultural magazine begun in the 1930s - from 1964 on, he published an annual memorial issue honoring Yiddish writers executed under Stalin.)

Before the IWO folded in the early 1950s, Mr. Goldberg spent 20 years as cultural director of its Jewish section, editing journals and running Yiddish-language schools that peaked with 80,000 students. He started a publishing house for Jewish histories and Yiddish songbooks, and in the 1970s and '80s taught Yiddish at Queens College.

He also kept Yiddishe Kultur alive for 40 years, fund-raising relentlessly to maintain bimonthly publication, which grew harder with each passing year. The journal had a few hundred subscribers when it expired in 2004.

In an interview in that difficult year - during which he also marked his 100th birthday - he told The Inquirer, "My eyes aren't too good, my ears aren't too good, and my legs aren't too good . . ." then added: "I'm not being negative. The nose is OK."