MAKS NADEL

MAKS NADEL (1871-1945)

            He was born in Vilna, Lithuania.  He studied in religious elementary school and in a Russian Jewish public school.  He was orphaned on his father’s side when young and interrupted his education to become a leather worker.  He joined “labor circles” and in 1894 was a leader of one such group.  He was active in Bundist work in Vilna and Kovno districts.  He was arrested on several occasions and spent some time in solitary confinement in the Petropavlosk Fortress.  He later lived in St. Petersburg, Geneva, London, and Paris.  He was active in the foreign committee of the Bund.  According to Leo Bernshteyn—in Ershte shprotsungen (First sprouts), p. 66—Nadel would have been one of the authors of the Russian pamphlet Chetyre rechi evreiskikh rabochikh (Four speeches of Jewish laborers) (May 1, 1892), which was illegally published in Geneva.  He would also have been a correspondent from London to Arbayter shtime (Voice of labor).  From 1905 he was working as a dental technician.  He authored the booklet Ratevet ayere tseyner (Save your teeth), “the importance of the teeth to the human body generally and to the stomach in particular” (London: Help for Self-Education, 1906), 22 pp., several editions.  He died in London.

Sources: N. A. Bukhbinder, Di geshikhte fun der yidisher arbeter-bavegung in rusland, loyt nit-gedrukte arkhiṿ-materyaln (The history of the Jewish labor movement in Russia, according to unpublished archival materials) (Vilna, 1931), p. 115; F. Kurski, Gezamlte shriftn (Collected writings) (New York, 1952), pp. 179, 356; Leo Burshteyn, Ershte shprotsungen (First sprouts) (Buenos Aires, 1956), pp. 61-75.

Khayim Leyb Fuks