YANKEV-BERISH MANDELBOYM (JACOB BER [BERISH] MANDELBAUM)

YANKEV-BERISH MANDELBOYM (JACOB BER [BERISH] MANDELBAUM) (b. December 4, 1912)

            He was born in Zamość, Lublin district, Poland.  He attended religious elementary school, later the yeshiva Mesivta in Warsaw, where he was ordained in the rabbinate.  He was chair of “Tseire Agudat Yisrael” (Agudat Yisrael youth) in Zamość and a member of the presidium of its principal administration in Poland.  In December 1939 he fled Warsaw for Lithuania, and from 1947 was living in the United States.  He began writing with an essay entitled “Gzeyres t”ḥ vet”t” (The massacres of 1648-1649), published in Dos yudishe togblat (The Jewish daily newspaper) in Warsaw (1930), and afterward he was a regular contributor.  He contributed as well to: Der zamoshtsher vort (The Zamość word) (1932-1934), of which he was also editor; Dos yudisher vokhenblat (The Jewish weekly newspaper) in Będzin (1933-1939); Unzer leben (Our life) and Beys yankev-zhurnal (Beys Yankev journal) in Lodz (1930-1939); Ortodoksishe yugend-bleter (Orthodox youth pages) in Warsaw (1931-1932); Dos yudishe vort (The Jewish word) in Kolomaye (1935-1939); and the monthly Darkhenu (Our path) in Warsaw (1934-1938); among others.  In Lithuania he was a standing contributor to Yudishe lebn (Jewish life) in Kovno.  In the years of WWII, he was a refugee in Shanghai and wrote for: the local Yiddish newspapers Unzer lebn and Di yidish shtime fun vaytn mizrekh (The Jewish voice from the Far East), for which he was also editor; Der yudishe almanakh (The Jewish almanac) in Shanghai (1944), also editor; and Evreiskaia zhizn’ (Jewish life) in Harbin.  In 1948 he edited the monthly Beys yankev (Beys Yankev)—five issues.  He also went on to contribute to: Zamoshch, bigeona uveshivera (Zamość, in its brilliance and its destruction) (Tel Aviv, 1952/1953).  In the remembrance volume Pinkes zamoshtsh (Records of Zamość) (Buenos Aires, 1957), he wrote “Sifre rabane veḥakhme zamoshch” (Religious texts of the rabbis and sages of Zamość), a bibliography of Zamość publications, pp. 221-316—also published separately as an imprint under the title Ḥakhme zamoshch (The sages of Zamość) (Buenos Aires, 1959), 95 pp.  Together with Rabbi Menaḥem Mendel Kasher, he published Sare haelef (Rulers of the millennium), a listing of the published texts and their authors who lived between the closing of the Talmud and the Shulḥan arukh (Set table) (Tel Aviv, 1959), 462 pp.  He also prepared for publication a list of all religious texts published between the two world wars.  Among his pen names: B. Landau, B. Davidzon, M. Barkay, and Y. Dov.  He was last living in New York, the head librarian at Yeshiva University.

Sources: Dr. R. Feldshuh, Yidisher gezelshaftlekher leksikon (Jewish communal handbook) (Warsaw, 1939), p. 745; B. Rozen, in Tlomatske 13, fun farbrentn nekhtn (13 Tłomackie St., of scorched yesterdays) (Buenos Aires, 1946), see index; Pinkes zamoshtsh (Records of Zamość) (Buenos Aires, 1957), pp. 577, 580, 581, 584, 1254; L. Berkovitsh, in Pinkes bendin (Records of Będzin) (Tel Aviv, 1959), see index; N. Ben-Menaḥem, in Panim al panim (Tel Aviv) (Av 26 [= August 19], 1960); N. Gordon, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (January 12, 1961); Professor S. Hoenig, in Tradition (New York) 1 and 2 (1959); T. Freshl, in Jewish Press (New York) (February 19, 1960; December 1, 1961).

Khayim Leyb Fuks