DOVID MANYEVITSH

DOVID MANYEVITSH (1896-August 13, 1959)

            His was born in Ukraine. He began writing in Russian under the pen name “Prisheltsev” (newcomer, stranger). In the 1920s he was living in New York, working as an internal contributor to the Communist newspaper Morgn-frayhayt (Morning freedom), for which he was in charge of the daily column entitled “Gehert un gezen” (Heard and seen). He later returned to Russia and continued his writing activities there. No information is forthcoming on his subsequent years. In book form he published: In yene teg (1917-1920) (In those days, 1917-1920) (New York: Frayhayt, 1926), 264 pp.; Masnkamf (Mass struggle), a collection of descriptions of the struggles in the needle trades in New York over the years 1925-1930, with a foreword by Moyshe Olgin (New York: Industrial Needle Trades Union, 1930), 330 pp.; Masnkamf in der amerikaner nodl-industrye far di yorn 1925-1928 (Mass struggle in the American needle industry over the years 1925-1928) (Kharkov-Kiev, 1932). He also translated into Yiddish in an abridged form: Republik shkid (Republic of Shkid [original: Respublika Shkid]) by G. Belikh and L. Panteleev (Kharkov: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1932), 205 pp.; and Di ershte tsvantsik yor, zikhroynes fun a untererdisher tuerin (The first twenty years, memoirs of an underground activist [original Zapiski riadovogo podpol'shchika (Notes of an ordinary underground worker)]) by T. S. Bobrovskaia, her memoirs (Moscow: Emes, 1932), 191 pp. He died in Moscow.

Sources: Y. N. Shteynberg, Mit eyn fus in amerike (With one foot in America) (Mexico City, 1951), pp. 162-63; N. Mayzil, Dos yidishe shafn un der yidisher arbeter in sovetn-farband (Jewish creation and the Jewish worker in the Soviet Union) (New York, 1959), p. 128; Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), no. 607.

Benyomen Elis

[Additional information from: Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), p. 225-26.]