YISROEL FRENKEL

YISROEL FRENKEL (June 29, 1857-1910)

            He was born in Ripin (Rypin), Plotsk (Płock) district, Poland.  In his youth he moved to Vlotslavek (Włocławek).  He studied in religious elementary school, yeshiva, and a Płock high school.  In 1885 he graduated from the medical faculty of Warsaw University and until his death practiced medicine in the Warsaw Jewish Hospital.  He debuted in print with medical articles in Hatsfira (The siren) in Warsaw (1882), and he remained a standing contributor to this journal until his death.  He was a close friend of Y. L. Perets.  He published in: Perets’s Yontef bleter (Holiday sheets), Di idishe biblyotek (The Jewish library) (both volumes), and Literatur un lebn (Literature and life), among others.  Together with Mikhl Veber, in 1895 he founded the [series] “Nutslekhe biblyotek” (Useable library).  In it he published his pamphlets: Der hoyz doctor (The house doctor) (Warsaw, 1895), 36 pp.; and Gegen di kholi-ra (Fighting bad illness), 24 pp.  A collection of Frenkel’s Hebrew-language works was published under the title Shomer habriut (Guardian of health) in Warsaw.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2 (under the entry for Y. L. Perets); N. Sokolov, Sefer hazikaron lesofre yisrael haḥayim itanu kayom (The book of remembrance for the Jewish writers living as if today) (Warsaw, 1889), pp. 201-2; Dr. Y. Shatski, Geshikhte fun yidn in varshe (History of Jews in Warsaw), vol. 3 (New York, 1953), p. 275; Yoysef Milner, in Sefer zikaron ripin (Remembrance volume for Rypin) (Tel Aviv, 1962), pp. 739-40.

Khayim Leyb Fuks