MORTKHE-LEYB MANSKI

MORTKHE-LEYB MANSKI (b. March 10, 1872)

            He was born in Pruzhane (Pruzhany), Byelorussia.  Until age fifteen he studied in religious elementary school and the Grodno yeshiva, later settling in Warsaw where he worked as a private Hebrew teacher and a business employee.  He ran a “cheder metukan” (improved religious elementary school), 1901-1902, in Warsaw.  In 1903 he made his way to the United States.  For a time he lived in New York, and in 1910 he settled in Newark.  As a writer he debuted in print (using the pen name Yankevzohn) with a sketch in Forverts (Forward) in New York (February 2, 1904), and later he published in this newspaper sketches, stories, and impressions.  In 1906 he switched to Yidishes tageblat (Jewish daily newspaper) in New York, where until 1910 he published under the pseudonym Malbim, as well as in Tog (Day) in New York.  From August 1910 until the end of December 1912, he was the editor and publisher of Nuarker vokhenblat (Newark weekly newspaper).  He was contributor and assistant editor, 1913-1914, to the monthly (later, weekly) Froyen-zhurnal (Women’s journal) in New York; among other items, he published in it a series of humorous sketches entitled “Mener nudnikes” (Men pests), using the pen name Rokhl Malbim.  Over the years 1915-1923, he served as the Newark correspondent for Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal) in New York.  He also contributed to Kibitser (Joker) and Kundes (Prankster)—in New York.  In book form: Milon yeladim levet sefer ivri (Children’s dictionary for the Hebrew school), part 1, Hebrew-Yiddish dictionary for children (Warsaw, 1903), 90 pp.  He died in Newark.

Source: Zalmen Reyzen archive, YIVO (New York).