ZALMEN LIKHTENSHTEYN

ZALMEN LIKHTENSHTEYN (December 5, 1903-September 1, 1978)

            He was born in Mlave (Mława), Poland.  He attended religious primary school and later a Polish state high school in Vlotslavek (Włocławek).  He was secretary of the Bundist organization in Włocławek.  Over the years 1926-1939, he was (in various periods) secretary for the Jewish trade unions in Warsaw.  He was elected in late 1938 (on the Bundist list) to be a member of the Warsaw city council.  In September 1939, he fled Poland and in 1940 arrived in the United States.  He worked at first in a sweatshop, later becoming a participant in the Jewish Workers’ Committee in New York.  He published (using the pen name “Der Goldener” [The golden one]) stories in Vlotslavker shtime (Voice of Włocławek) in 1922, and later in Vlotslavker vokhnblat (Włocławek weekly newspaper) and, between 1926 and 1939, he wrote articles from time to time on the Jewish trade union movement in Folks-tsaytung (People’s newspaper) in Warsaw.  In New York he published (under the name Z. Likht) stories and later articles about social insurance in Forverts (Forward).  In more recent times, he helped organize the Gold Ring Clubs (the association of the elderly in New York and other cities) and was one of the principal leaders around the movement to attend to medical assistance to older persons through the laws of social security.  He published a booklet in Polish entitled [in English]: Our Daily Bread (Warsaw, 1938), 205 pp.  He died in New York.

Sources: P. Shvarts, in Fun noentn pover (New York) 2 (1956), p. 430; New York Times (May 21, 1962); S. Regensberg, in Forverts (New York) (May 22, 1962).

Khayim Leyb Fuks