MORTKHE KHALAMISH (MORDEKHAI ḤALAMISH)

MORTKHE KHALAMISH (MORDEKHAI ḤALAMISH) (1911-1989)

            The adopted name of Mortkhe Flint, he was born in Ger, Poland.  In his youth he moved with his parents to Warsaw, and there studied in religious primary school, high school, and the Tachkemoni rabbinical seminary.  In 1935 he made aliya to Israel, lived on a kibbutz, and was active in the Hagana and “Hashomer Hatsair” (The young guard).  He cofounded the literary journal Ershter shnit (First cut) in Warsaw (1932).  Over the years 1936-1949, he wrote for Davar (Word) and Al hamishmar (On guard) in Tel Aviv.  From 1949 he published as well in Yiddish periodicals: Kunst un visnshaft (Art and science) and Arbeter-vort (Workers’ word) in Paris; Nay-velt (New world), Af der vakh (On guard), Yisroel-shtime (Voice of Israel), Folks-blat (People’s newspaper), Heymish (Familiar), Folk un tsien (People and Zion)—all in Israel—as well as in the Yiddish press in Canada and South America.  From 1947 he was an internal contributor to Al hamishmar, and from 1952 he edited the inside pages as well as the Sabbath and holiday editions of the newspaper.  He lectured on Yiddish literature for radio broadcasts “Kol yisrael leola” (Voice of Israel to the immigrant).  He translated into Hebrew a series of books from Yiddish, Polish, English, and German, among them a volume of stories by Rokhl Oyerbakh.  He lived in Tel Aviv until his death.

Source: Dr. Shloyme Bikl, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (January 15, 1960).