NAKHMEN GEZANG

NAKHMEN GEZANG (1888-February 11, 1944)

            He was born in the Cracow region, Galicia.  In his youth he came to Berlin where he was a Hebrew teacher.  Later he became involved in Zionist activities in London.  In 1910 he emigrated to Argentina.  Together with Yankev Yoselovitsh and Shloyme Libeshuts, he founded the Argentine Zionist Federation and was its general secretary until 1920, thereafter its president.  In 1925 he was a delegate to the Zionist Congress in Vienna, and later a delegate to virtually all subsequent congresses.  He was also the first president of the Jewish Congress and the Union of Jewish Organizations in Argentina (DAYA).  He was the manager of the publishing house and served on the editorial board of the Zionist journal Di yudishe hofenung (The Jewish hope), with Yankev Yoselovitsh.  He also published articles on Zionist matters in Idishe velt (Jewish world) in Buenos Aires and in various Yiddish and German Jewish publications, and he translated from other languages into Yiddish.  In pamphlet form, he published: Der khovevey tsienizm un der politishe tsienizm (The lovers of Zionism and political Zionism) (Buenos Aires, 1937), 45 pp.  He was involved in the editing of Rashi bukh (Rashi volume), together with Yedidye Efron, Yoysef Mendelson, and Tsvi Shvarts (Buenos Aires, 1941), 350 pp.  He died suddenly in Buenos Aires.

Sources: Idishe velt (Buenos Aires) (March 10, 1944), dedicated to Nakhmen Gezang; M. Hacohen Sinai, in Der shpigl (March 6, 1944); Sefer argentina (The book of Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1954), pp. 14-15, passim.