MENDL KOKHANSKI

MENDL KOKHANSKI (July 18, 1911-May 20, 1982)

            A journalist and theater critic, he was born in Lodz.  He graduated from journalism school in Warsaw.  He came to the United States in 1941.  He was active there in Labor Zionism.  From 1956 he was living in Israel.  He published articles on community matters, theater, and literature in: Lodzer tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper), Dos vort (The word) in Warsaw and Kovno, and Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter), Tsukunft (Future), Tog (Day), and Forverts (Forward) in New York.  He also published in Polish, English, and Hebrew language newspapers.  He brought out two English-language books: about the Yiddish theatrical season, 1932-1933, in New York; and about fifty years of the Hebrew theater in Israel.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Khayim Leyb Fuks, Lodzh shel mayle, dos yidishe gaystiḳe un derhoybene lodzh, 100 yor yidishe un oykh hebreishe literatur un kultur in lodzh un in di arumiḳe shtet un shtetlekh (Lodz on high, the Jewish spiritual and elevated Lodz, 100 years of Yiddish and also Hebrew literature and culture in Lodz and in the surrounding cities and towns) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1972), pp. 66-67; Mi vemi beyisrael (Who’s who in Israel) (Tel Aviv, 1975).

Ruvn Goldberg