Thursday 2 November 2017

SHLOYME MITSMAKHER (MITZMACHER, MINTZ)

SHLOYME MITSMAKHER (MITZMACHER, MINTZ) (June 11, 1912-December 5, 1991)
            He was born in Klimentov, Kelts (Kielce) district, Poland.  During WWI he moved with his parents to Apt (Opatów).  He studied in religious elementary school and a Mizrachi school, and he graduated from a seven-level Polish public school.  He later became a laborer.  Until 1939 he lived in Poland, later until 1946 in various regions of Soviet Russia.  In 1946 he was a student in the Moscow Yiddish Theater School (under Shloyme Mikhoels).  With the repatriation of Polish refugees in 1946, he returned to Poland and until 1948 lived in Lodz.  From 1948 he was in Montreal, Canada, where he graduated from a Hebrew teachers’ seminary and became a teacher.  He debuted in print (using the name Sh. Tsimer) with a poem—entitled “Epes tsit mikh” (Something’s drawing me in)—in the journal Zibn teg (Seven days) in Warsaw in 1931, and from then he contributed poetry, stories, and articles to: Dos naye lebn (The new life), Yidishe shriftn (Yiddish writings), Folksstime (Voice of the people), and Oyfgang (Arise)—in Lodz and Warsaw (1946-1948); Yidish kultur (Jewish culture), Tsukunft (Future), Morgn-frayhayt (Morning freedom), and Zamlungen (Anthologies)—in New York; Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal; Idisher zhurnal (Jewish journal) in Toronto; and Parizer tsayshrift (Parisian periodical) and Unzer Eynikeyt (Our unity) in Paris; among other serials.  In book form: In vogl (Wandering), poetry (Toronto, 1948), 42 pp.; Eyner fun a sakh (One of many) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1970), 111 pp.; In poshete verter (In simple language) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1979), 239 pp.  He died in Toronto.

Sources: D. S., in Dos naye lebn (Lodz) 285 (1948); A. Nisnevitsh, in Vokhenblat (Toronto) (February 3, 1949); B. Mark, in Yidishe shriftn (Warsaw) (January 1955).
Khayim Leyb Fuks

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 375.]


1 comment:

  1. This is my father. I'd like to correct something in his history: After WW II he settled in Toronto where his father, who had left Poland in in the early '30s, had sponsored him.While working as a tailor/furrier, and later, as a storekeeper, he spent many hours into the night writing his dissertations, which eventually were published as his books. In the meantime he received his Hebrew teacher diploma as well.

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