SHLOYME MOLTSAN

SHLOYME MOLTSAN (b. 1854)

            He was born in Slutsk, Byelorussia.  He attended religious elementary school and yeshivas.  In his youth he moved to Vilna, was a friend of Ben-Tsion Alfes and of the Antokoler Rav, Avrom Kretshmer, and later became a fierce fighter against Hassidism in Lithuania.  He was the author and translator of ethical tracts in Hebrew and Yiddish.  His text Even shlomo (The rock of Solomon), first edition (Vilna, 1873), 88 pp., had a huge success and went on to be published in numerous editions.  He also published a second part to the book, under the title Kitsur even shlomo (Rock of Solomon, in short) (Vilna).  His son YITSḤAK MOLTSAN, a religious judge in Vilna, translated into Yiddish Rabbi Avraham Danzig’s work Zikhron torat moshe (Commemorating the Torah of Moses) (Vilna, 1898), 116 pp.

Sources: See the biography of Ben-Tsion Alfes, in Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur (Biographical dictionary of modern Yiddish literature): http://yleksikon.blogspot.ca/2014/07/ben-tsion-benzion-alfes.html; Bet eked sefarim; B. Kosovski, Biblyografye fun di yidishe oysgabes in der britisher zone fun daytshland, 1945-1950 (Bibliography of Yiddish publications in the British zone in Germany, 1945-1950) (Bergen Belsen, 1950), no. 46.

Khayim Leyb Fuks