SHMUEL-FROYM TIKTIN

SHMUEL-FROYM TIKTIN (b. March 2, 1878)

            He was born in Jerusalem.  He studied in religious primary school, yeshiva, and on his own.  In 1891 he became secretary to the writer Zev Yaakov, and later he was an assistant to Eliezer Ben-Yehuda.  He was an active leader in Mizrachi.  In 1912 he moved to the United States and for many years thereafter remained active in Jewish religious life.  He began writing stories in Zev Yaakov’s Haarets (The land) in Jerusalem.  He later contributed work to: Ḥavatselet (Daffodil), Hashkafa (Outlook), Haḥerut (Freedom), and Yerushalaim (Jerusalem)—in Israel; Hatsfira (The siren) in Warsaw; Hamagid (The preacher) in Lik; Hamelits (The advocate) in Odessa; Maḥzike hadat (Supporters of the faith) in Cracow; Di yudishe gazeten (The Jewish gazette), Di varhayt (The truth), Der amerikaner (The American), and other periodicals in New York.  He was the author of: Tseror hamor (A bundle of myrrh), stories of Jewish life in the land of Israel (Jerusalem, 1893), 64 pp.; and Imre bina (Words of understanding), aphorisms and translations (Jerusalem, 1901), 43 pp.  He served as editor of Unzer bruder (Our brother), “Jerusalem’s neutral newspaper for all Jewish interests” (1911-1912).  He was correspondent for the Jerusalem Hebrew-language newspapers Hashkafa and Haḥerut at the Ninth Zionist Congress in Hamburg in 1909.  He also wrote under such pseudonyms as: Sh. E. T., Yisraeli, Hayerushalmi, and Hayehudi.  He was last living in New York.

Sources: Y. Sh. Traḥtnman, in Hatsfira (Warsaw) (December 7, 1902); B. Koralnik, in Tsukunft (New York) (March 1928); M. Unger, in Zamlbukh lekoved dem tsveyhundert un fuftsikstn yoyvl fun der yidisher prese, 1686-1936 (Anthology in honor of the 250^th jubilee of the Yiddish press, 1686-1936), ed. Dr. Y. Shatski (New York, 1937); D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of Israel), vol. 1 (Tel Aviv, 1947), pp. 278-79; A. Toybenhoyz, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (February 10, 1954).

Khayim Leyb Fuks