MORTKHE KHMELNIK

MORTKHE KHMELNIK

            He was born in Bialystok.  He was the leader of the Bialystok Labor Zionist organization and the director of the first Bialystok Vaad Hakahal (Communist council) during the German occupation (1915-1918).  He was active in a variety of community institutions in Bialystok.  During WWII he worked in the division of social defense in the Bialystok ghetto, helping the pioneer fighting group Dror (Freedom).  He wrote articles for the Bialystok-based Dos naye leben (The new life) and other local press publications.  He was killed in the era of the Nazis in Bialystok.

Sources: Dos naye leben 1919-1929 (Bialystok), jubilee publication; Byalistoker leksikon (Bialystok handbook) (1935); Ber Mark, Der oyfshtand in byalistoker geto (The uprising in the Bialystok ghetto) (Warsaw, 1950), see index.

Yankev Kohen