LUDVIG-LITMAN GELERTER

LUDVIG-LITMAN GELERTER (1873-July 1945)

            He was a Romanian Jewish socialist leader.  He stood at the head of the oppositional circle of dissidents under the name Lumina (Light), and he was one of the most important contributors to Lumina, organ of the first Jewish socialist organization in Romania.  He was one of the founders and editors of the socialist weekly Der veker (The alarm), published from May 1, 1896.  In 1915 he was an important contributor to the revived Der veker.  After WWI he lived in Bucharest and was active among Jewish socialists.  He traveled around the country giving lectures.  In 1929 he was one of the founders of the “Socialist Workers’ Union of Romania”—also known by the name the “Party of Gerlertists.”  He was one of the most important Jewish socialist writers in Romania.  He often spoke out publicly against the assimilationist spirit among Jewish socialists in Bucharest.  He died in Romania.  New York Branch 649 of Workmen’s Circle bears his name: “Dr. Gelerter.”

Sources: Dr. Y. Kisman, Shtudyes tsu der geshikhte fun rumenishe Yidn in 19tn un onheyb 20stn yorhundert (Studies in the history of Romanian Jews in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) (New York, 1944); Kisman, in Unzer tsayt (New York) (December 1945).