MOYSHE KALKHHEYM (MOSHE KALCHHEIM)

MOYSHE KALKHHEYM (MOSHE KALCHHEIM) (November 13, 1915-April 3, 1996)

            He was born in Yaroslav (Jarosław), Poland.  He attended public school and middle school, and then went to study in Lemberg.  He was active in the Zionist Akiva movement.  Confined in the Vilna ghetto, he was a member of the Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye (United Partisan Organization or F.P.O.), and later he joined the partisans in the woods.  After the war, he was in Italy, France, and from 1961 Israel where he worked as publicity manager for the Jewish Agency.  Before the war he wrote stories and reportage pieces in Polish for Opinia (Opinion) in Warsaw and Divre Akiva (The words of Akiva) in Cracow.  He began publishing in Yiddish after the war in: Tsienistishe shtime (Zionist voice) in Munich and Paris; Arbeter-vort (Workers’ word) in Paris; Idishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) and Di prese (The press) in Buenos Aires; Afrikaner yidishe tsaytung (African Jewish newspaper) in Johannesburg; and Letste nayes (Latest news) in Tel Aviv; among others.  From Hebrew he translated M. Basok’s Mapilim bukh (Volume for clandestine immigrants to Israel [during the British mandate period]) (Paris, 1949), 441 pp.  Among his pen names: Ben-Avigdor, Emba, M. Kal Khen.

Sources: M. Shner, in Unzer vort (Paris) (February 15, 1973); Mi vemi beyisrael (Who’s who in Israel) (Tel Aviv, 1979), 229 pp.

Ruvn Goldberg