American Yiddish Leftist Poets of Belarusian Origin

In the 20-30s, the Yiddish Poetry flourished in America. Its official history focuses on three movements: the proletarian poets, Di Yunge and In zikh. Nevertheless, beside them, a leftist poetic circle was active and popular in America - the Proletpen.
The Proletpen poets were communists, pro-Soviet and anti-American, they spoke out against capitalism and racism. They developed their own historiosophic and utopian visions and their own fusion of religion and atheism.
The core of Proletpen was built by Jewish poets of Belarusian origin: the leader of the movement, who afterwards wrote its history,Alexander Pomerantz, was born and grew up in Grodno, several more key figures of Prolepten also came from Belarus (Arn Kurtz, Yosl Grinshpan, Avrom Viktor, Betsolel Friedman, Menke Katz).
In my presentation, I will focus on Alexander Pomerantz` and Arn Kurtz` contribution, on their historical, utopian and eschatological vision.
I will also trace some points that the Proletpen had in common with the Jewish Belorussian utopian visions in the 20-30s.