MORTKHE SHINOR (MORDEHAI SHINAR)

MORTKHE SHINOR (MORDEHAI SHINAR) (b. May 8, 1911)

            He was a journalist, born in Loshits (Losice), Poland.  Shinor was the Hebraized form of his surname at birth: Shinkorzh.  He attended religious elementary school, yeshiva, and a Polish public school.  Over the years 1926-1928, he studied at the Tachkemoni seminary in Warsaw.  In 1930 he graduated as an external student from the Polish Jewish high school in Mezritsh-Podlask (Międzyrzecz-Podlaski).  He studied mathematics (1931-1933) at Warsaw University.  In 1933 he departed for Paris.  From late 1939 he was living in Bolivia, Uruguay, and Brazil.  He was again in Paris (1947-1948), and from 1949 in the state of Israel.  Early on he joined the Communist movement and left it in 1949.  He lived in Tel Aviv.

            He began publishing in 1928 in Mezritsher vokhnblat (Międzyrzecz weekly newspaper).  He wrote articles, reportage pieces, and travel impressions for: Naye prese (New press) in Paris, co-editor from 1934; Parizer zhurnal (Parisian journal); Der yidisher kleynhendler (The Jewish retailer) (1937-1938, editor); Hantverker vort (Artisan’s word) (1938-1939, editor); Oyfsnay (Afresh) (1947); Di yidishe vokh (The Jewish week) (1948, editor); Unzer fraynt (Our friend) (Montevideo, 1940-1945, co-editor); Unzer shtime (Our voice) (São Paolo, 1946-1947, editor); Di prese (The press) (Buenos Aires); Haynt (Today) (Buenos Aires); and in Israel: Nayvelt (New world), Ilustrirte velt-vokh (Illustrated world week), Folksblat (People’s newspaper) (1958-1968, co-editor), Yisroel shtime (Voice of Israel), Letste nayes (Latest news) (from 1971 a regular contributor), and Yidishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper).

            He published lengthy pieces in a volume he edited: Loshits, lezeykher an umgebrakhter kehile (Losice, in memory of a murdered community) (Tel Aviv, 1963), 459 pp.; in Mark Dvorzhetsky, ed., Yankev mansdorf in zayn dor (Yaakov Mansdorf in his generation) (Johannesburg, 1950s); Yidisher teater in eyrope tsvishn beyde velt-milkhomes (Yiddish theater in Europe between the two world wars) (New York: World Jewish Culture Congress, 1968).  He edited the remembrance volume: In pintshev togt shoyn nisht (No longer dawn in Pińczów) (Tel Aviv, 1970), 480 pp.  He served as correspondent to a string of Yiddish newspapers in Europe and South America.  In book form: Gezen un gehert in ratn-farband (Seen and heard in the Soviet Union) (Tel Aviv, 1967), 199 pp.; Fun metule biz eylat (From Metula to Eilat) (Tel Aviv, 1978), 400 pp; Durkhn zunikn fentster (Through the sunny darkness), stories (1984), 381 pp.  His pen names: B. Feder, A. Belviler, Shloyme Ashkenazi, M. Yitskhaki, A. Freyman, M. Mizrakhi, M. Shenker, M. Avinoami, and Sh. Mortkhe.

Sources: Avrom Volf-Yasni, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (April 21, 1967); Falik Lerner, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (July 19, 1967; July 21, 1967); Froym Shrayer, in Yisroel-shtime (Tel Aviv) (July 31, 1967); Yisroel Emyot, in Tsukunft (New York) 19 (1967); M. Run, in Haynt (Montevideo) (February 13, 1969); Y. Barzilai, in Folk un tsien (Jerusalem) (May 1979); Mortkhe Litvin, in Pariz (Paris) (October 20, 1979).

Berl Cohen

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 532.]