Pinḥas Kahanovich (born in Russia in 1884) was a prolific author of Yiddish-language poems, short stories, essays, and novels under the pseudonym Der Nister (“the Hidden One”). His work drew on Jewish mysticism and folktales as well as on European modernism. Along with many other Soviet Jewish writers, he was sent to the Gulag after World War II, and executed in the early 1950s. Boris Sandler tells the story of his life. (Video, in Yiddish with English subtitles, about 5 minutes).
Read more on Forverts: http://blogs.yiddish.forward.com/day-by-day-yiddish-calendar/192078/