ESTER MANGEL

ESTER MANGEL (1895-spring 1943)

            She was born in Warsaw, Poland.  She studied at the Universities of Warsaw, Cracow, Berlin, and London, and she received her doctoral degree in philosophy.  She was a member of the Zionist central committee and vice-president of the women’s organization WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization).  She was director of the Zionist People’s University in Warsaw.  She lived in the land of Israel for several years, later returning to Poland.  Over the years 1925-1929, she visited the United States and several countries in Latin America on matters concerning the Jewish National Fund.  Until WWII she worked as a lawyer in Warsaw.  From 1923 she was a regular contributor to: Haynt (Today)—in which she published articles on social, economic, and political issues—Der khoydesh (The month), Handels-tsaytung (Business newspaper), and Tsienistishe bleter (Zionist pages)—in Warsaw.  She contributed pieces as well to: Tog (Day) and Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal) in New York; Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal; and Idishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) in Buenos Aires; among others.  When the Nazis seized Warsaw, she fled to Lemberg and from there to Vilna.  During the Soviet occupation, she lived in Lemberg, later returning to Warsaw, and there she was confined in the Warsaw Ghetto, a participant in Dr. Ringelblum’s “Oyneg Shabes” project, for which she wrote a monograph entitled “Dos yidishe lebn in lemberg unter di sovetn” (Jewish life in Lemberg under the Soviets).  She was killed in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2; information from her sister, Dr. Ahuva Mangel in Tel Aviv; Emanuel Ringelblum, in Sefer milḥamot hagetaot (The fighting ghettos) (Tel Aviv, 1954), p. 50.

Khayim Leyb Fuks