MATISYAHU (MATITYAHU) HINDES

MATISYAHU (MATITYAHU) HINDES (June 23, 1894-February 13, 1957)

            He was born in Jerusalem.  His father had once taken part in the Russian revolutionary movement, later became a “lover of Zion” (ḥovev tsiyon), studyied medicine, moved to Israel where he worked as a doctor in the Rothschild Hospital in Jerusalem, and then returned with his family to Poland.  Matisyahu attended a Warsaw high school, later studying law at Universities of Warsaw, St. Petersburg, Heidelberg, and Breslau.  After graduating in 1915 he lived in St. Petersburg.  After the Russian Revolution of 1917, he lived in Kiev, Ukraine, served as a member of the Jewish national council, and of the Ukrainian constituent assembly.  He was a delegate to all of the Zionist Congresses, a member of the city council and the Jewish community of Warsaw, chairman of the Jewish National Fund in Poland, and on behalf of this institution he visited South Africa in 1927 with Nokhum Sokolov.  From 1940 he was back in Israel where he became a bank director in Haifa.  From 1954 he was director of Bank Leumi in Jerusalem.  During WWII he visited the United States on an important mission.  From 1955 he was Israeli ambassador to Uruguay, where thanks to him the local parliament sent an official delegation to Israel.  He began writing in 1912 in the Polish Jewish Przegląd codzienny (Daily overview) and for Moment (Moment) in Warsaw.  When he was in St. Petersburg in 1915, he was a professional journalist and wrote for Russkie vedomosti (Russian gazette) in Moscow and Evreiskaia zhizn′ in St. Petersburg; later, in Warsaw he was on the editorial board of the Zionist organs, the daily newspaper Der telegraf (The telegraph) and the weekly Af der vakh (On guard), was a regular contributor to Haynt (Today) in Warsaw, wrote also for Jüdische Rundschau (Jewish review) in Berlin, New Palestine in New York, Haarets (The land) and Haolam (The world), among others.  He died in Montevideo.  His body was later brought to the state of Israel.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; R. Feldshuh, Yidisher gezelshaftlekher leksikon (Jewish communal handbook), vol. 1 (Warsaw, 1939); D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 5 (Tel Aviv, 1952), p. 2169; obituary notice in Tog-morgn zhurnal (New York) (February 14, 1957); M. Turkov, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (February 25, 1957); A. Alperin, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (February 26, 1957); Y. Vaynshenker, Boyers un mitboyers fun yidishn yishev in urugvay (Founders and builders of the Jewish community in Uruguay) (Montevideo, 1957), pp. 81-82.