SHMUEL-MORTKHE ZELTSHEN

SHMUEL-MORTKHE ZELTSHEN (November 21, 1885-December 29, 1960)

            His original surname was Zeltshenko.  He was born in a village in Mohilev district, Byelorussia, to a father who served as a ritual slaughterer.  Until age twelve he studied with his father, later in the yeshiva in Homel (Gomel).  At age sixteen he became a teacher in a village and later worked as a bookkeeper.  In 1912 he settled in Canada and from 1920 he was living in Winnipeg where he was active in the Perets school, as well as chairman of the cultural and educational committee of the Jewish Congress and a member of its executive.  He began writing articles in 1920 in the weekly newspaper Dos idishe vort (The Jewish word) in Winnipeg, later serving as editor for the newspaper, and he wrote there (from 1922 under the pseudonym Z. Mark) a daily column entitled “Agev urkhe” (By the way).  A collection of his articles appeared in book form entitled Agev urkhe (Winnipeg, 1948), 283 pp., with author’s name given as “Z. Mark.”  He served as the Winnipeg correspondent for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in New York.  He died in Winnipeg.

Sources: Y. Y. Sigal, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (November 21, 1947); M. Ravitsh, in Yorbukh (Yearbook) (New York, 1949/1950); Rabbi Dr. M. Shvartsman, in Keneder odler (March 4, 1956); B. G. Zak, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (March 23, 1956); Sh. Belkin, Di poyle tsien bavegung in kanade (The Labor Zionist movement in Canada) (Montreal, 1956), see index; Y. R., in Keneder odler (February 2, 1948); Y. Rabinovitsh, in Keneder odler (November 3, 1959).