MAKS GELER

MAKS GELER (b. 1900)

            His family came from Galicia.  He studied painting in the state art academy in Cracow.  Between the two world wars, he was living in Warsaw.  He contributed to the Yiddish press in Poland and abroad for many years.  He wrote articles and reviews of art and theater, and he translated stories and novels from Ukrainian.  He placed pieces in: Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper), Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Folk un land (People and country), Vokhnshrift (Weekly writings), and Foroys (Onward) in Warsaw; Yidishe velt (Jewish world) in Philadelphia; and Shikager kuryer (Chicago courier).  He edited the illustrated weekly magazine Kino-te-rad (Movie, theater, radio) in Warsaw (its first issue appeared November 19, 1926), and he translated from Ukrainian the novel by M. Cherniavsky, Farn glik fun der mentshheyt (For the happiness of mankind) (Warsaw, 1925).  Geler was in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi occupation, and his subsequent fate remains unknown.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), vol. 1, see index; Yonam Turkov, Azo iz es geven (That’s how it was) (Buenos Aires, 1948), see index.