MEYER-TSVI ZAKHEYM

MEYER-TSVI ZAKHEYM (December 14, 1873-August 23, 1960)

            He was born in Kovno, Lithuania, into a scholarly family.  He studied in religious elementary school, with his father, and with the Chofetz Chaim in Radin (Raduń).  For one year he lived as a recluse in Eyshishok (Eišiškės).  After an assortment of transformations, he left for English (1900), and there he worked as a Hebrew teacher.  In 1904 he moved to the United States, settling in Chicago, where he was a teacher for a time and later an insurance agent.  He began by writing humorous sketches in Yudishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) in Glasgow (1902), later serving as “Lets fun der redaktsye” (Clown of the editorial board) until the discontinuation of the newspaper in 1904.  He contributed to the London Jewish publications: Londoner id (London Jew), Shulamis (Shulamit), Pipifoks (“Pee-pee-dox”), and Telefon (Telephone), among others.  In America, he published humorous pieces and popular tales in: Minikes yontef bleter (Minikes’s holiday pages) in New York; Idisher kuryer (Jewish courier) and Idisher rekord (Jewish record) in Chicago.  He was a regular contributor as well to Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal.  He also published under the pseudonyms: Mts”h and Der Poylisher Litvak.  He later settled in Los Angeles, California.  He died in Chicago.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Yivo-bleter (Vilna) (November-December 1938).