MENDL ZINGER

MENDL ZINGER (June 30, 1890-September 10, 1976)

            He was born in Brod (Brody), eastern Galicia.  He studied in religious primary school and in synagogue study hall, as well as secular subjects with private tutors.  He lived in Israel, 1909-1911.  He studied for two years in a religious teachers’ seminary in Jerusalem.  He traveled on assignment for the world association of Labor Zionists to various countries in Europe and in the United States.  He was a member of the Vienna Jewish community council.  He served as a member of the secretariat of “Muetset Poale Ḥaifa” (Labor board of Haifa) and a friend of Vaad Hapoel Tsiyoni (Zionist General Council) and of Mapai (Workers’ Party in the Land of Israel).  In 1906 he wrote correspondence pieces for Lemberger togblat (Lemberg daily newspaper), edited by Moyshe Kleynman, and later was a contributor to Der yudisher arbayter (The Jewish worker) in Lemberg, to Nosn Birnboym’s (Nathan Birnbaum’s) Daytshe vokhnshrift (German weekly writing) in Austria (on the eve of WWI), Dos idishe folk (The Jewish people) in New York, Unzer vort (Our word) in Cracow-Warsaw, and to the Labor Zionist Party press in various countries and various languages.  In 1921 he established in Cracow the party organ Arbayter-vort (Workers’ word).  Over the years 1923-1934, he edited the organ of the Labor Zionists in Austria, Der jüdische Arbeiter (The Jewish worker) in Vienna.  He founded and edited (1924-1925) the weekly Naye tsayt (New times) in Vienna, which appeared for roughly one year.  Among his pen names: Hameshorer, M. Ben-Yankev, M. Avi-Ori, L. Kantor, and Menakhem.  He was one of the founders of the publishing house “Der kval” (The source) in Vienna, wrote articles about Sholem-Aleykhem and Yankev Dinezon for the series of pamphlets, “Finf niftorim” (Five deceased men [Sholem-Alekhem, Y. L. Perets, Mendele Moykher-Sforim, S. S. Frug, and Y. Dinezon]) (Vienna: Der kval, 1919).  Among his books: Fun mayn heymland, zikhroynes un bilder fun erets-yisroel (From my homeland, memoirs and images from the land of Israel) (Vienna: M. Hikel, 1919), 57 pp.; Dernokh, a bild in eyn akt (Thereafter, a scene in one act) (Lemberg: Arbet, 1923), 32 pp.; Der Weg des jüdischen Arbeiters zum Sozialismus (The way of the Jewish laborer to socialism) (Vienna: Zukunft, ca. 1930), 112 pp.; Die blutigen Ereignisse in Palästina (1929) u. der internationale Sozialismus (The bloody events in Palestine in 1929 and international socialism) (Vienna: Zukunft, 1930), 100 pp.; editor of Ber Borochow, Sozialismus und Zionismus, eine Synthese (Socialism and Zionism, a synthesis) (Vienna: Zukunft, 1932), 398 pp.; Gegen den Strom (Against the current), with Shalom Wurm (Vienna: Heḥaluts, 1933/1934).  In Hebrew: Beyaarot hakarmel (In the forests of the Carmel) (Haifa, 1937); Lean muadot pne rusya sovyetit? (Whither is the image of Soviet Russia going?) (Haifa, 1939); Ben milḥama leshalom (Between war and peace) (Haifa, 1941); Likrat nitsaḥon (Toward victory) (1942); Nisayon shenikhshal (Failed attempt) (En Ḥarod, 1944), 61 pp.; Bereshit hatsiyonut ha sotsialistit (The beginning of socialist Zionist) (Haifa, 1957), 454 pp.  He settled in Israel in the 1930s, living in Haifa.  He was a close personal friend of Dovid Pinski, after the latter settled on Mt. Carmel in 1948, and looked after him especially in his last years when Pinski was suffering from a helpless illness until his death in 1959.  Zinger died in Haifa in 1976.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Sefer haishim (Biographical dictionary) (Tel Aviv, 1936/1937), p. 218; Sefer hashana shel haitonaim (Journalism yearbook) (Tel Aviv, 1949/1950), p. 256; Dov Sadan, Kearat egozim o elef bediha ubediha, asufat humor be-yisrael (A bowl of nuts or one thousand and one jokes, an anthology of humor in Israel) (Tel Aviv, 1953), see index; Dr. M. Naygreshl, in Fun noentn over (New York) 1 (1955); Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 3 (Montreal, 1958), pp. 182-83.

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