YEKHIEL (HERMAN) MANTEL

YEKHIEL (HERMAN) MANTEL (1880-April 10, 1948)

            He was born in Mishkolts (Miskolc), Hungary.  He descended from generations of rabbis and rebbes in Hungary.  At age eighteen he received ordination into the rabbinate.  He was in the Austrian army (1914-1915) on the war fronts with Russia.  Afterward he lived in Vienna, where he became engaged in business and was an active Mizrachi leader.  He was the cofounder of Mizrachi in Hungary.  He published articles in the Yiddish and German Jewish press in Austria and in Hungary.  From 1932 he was living in the United States, the rabbi at the Or Ḥadash (New light) synagogue in New York.  He contributed to: Dos yidishe likht (The Jewish light), Der mizrakhi-veg (The Mizrachi way), and Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal), among other serials, in New York.  His books include: Vort un tsayt (Word and time), sermons on Tanakh issues (New York, 1938), 2 vols., each 148 pp.; Mantels folks redner, droshes un redes far ale yomim toyvim un farshidene gelegenheyten (Mantel’s public speaker, sermons and speeches for all holidays and various occasions), “an encyclopedia for rabbis, preachers, and public speakers” (including sermons by his son, Khayim Dov Mantel, published after Y. Mantel’s death) (New York, 1948), 259 pp.  He died in New York.

Sources: Information from his wife in New York; obituary notices in the Yiddish press in New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks