DOVID MALTS (DAVID MALTZ)

DOVID MALTS (DAVID MALTZ) (1862-1936)

            He was born in Lemberg, eastern Galicia.  He was the brother-in-law of the Rabbi Dr. Mordecai Ehrenpreis.  He received a Jewish and a general education.  He studied law at the Universities of Lemberg, Cracow, and Vienna, from which he received his doctoral degree.  Over the years 1907-1918, he lived in Burštýn, thereafter returning to Lemberg.  In 1882 he joined the Ḥibat Tsiyon (Love of Zion) movement.  He was a cofounder of the Zionist student association in the former Austrian empire and (with Prof. Balaban and others) of the society “Mikra kodesh” (Holy convocation).  From 1891 he was one of the principal leaders of the Zionist movement in Galicia and Bukovina.  He was a delegate of the “Yunge tsienistn” (Young Zionists) to the First Zionist Congress in Basil.  In 1907 and 1911 he was the Jewish candidate for the Austrian parliament from Lemberg and Burštýn.  He was a cofounder of the Zionist press in Galicia in Yiddish, Polish, and Hebrew.  He contributed to: Der yudisher folkskalendar (The Jewish people’s calendar), edited by G. Bader in Lemberg (1896); the Yiddish-language Haivri (The Jew) in Lemberg (1898); and other serials.  From 1904 he was a regular writer and for a time political editor of Lemberger togblat (Lemberg daily newspaper).  He contributed work as well to: Der folksfraynd (Friend of the people) in Sanok (1907-1912); Der yud (The Jew) in Stanislavov (Stanisle) (1912); Raysher folkstsaytung (Rzesza people’s newspaper) (1918-1920); Moyshe Frostik’s Yudisher kalendar (Jewish calendar) (every year); and in Hebrew: Hakarmel (The Carmel), Hamagid (The preacher), Hashaḥar (The dawn), and Chwila (Moment) in Lemberg, and for the publisher Moriah.  He was the author of a pamphlet (with Gershon Tsifer) in Polish whose title would translate as: “What should the program for Jewish youth be?” (Lemberg, 1890), 48 pp.; and a play in Polish, entitled Moyshe blum (Moyshe Blum) (1905).  From 1925 he was a contributor to Nowy dziennik (New daily) in Cracow, in which, among other items, he published memoirs of the Zionist movement in Galicia.  He died in Lemberg.

Sources: Dr. Y. Tenenboym, Galitsye mayn alte heym (Galicia, my old home) (Buenos Aires, 1952), see index; N. M. Gelber, Toldot hatenua hatsiyonit begalitsiya (History of the Zionist movement in Galicia), vols. 1 and 2 (Jerusalem, 1958), see index; Y. Shvarts, in Sefer burshtin (Volume for Burštýn) (Jerusalem-Tel Aviv, 1960), p. 173; Y. Fenster, in Sefer burshtin, pp. 275-78.

Khayim Leyb Fuks