ELCHANAN INDELMAN

ELCHANAN INDELMAN (May 22, 1913-April 21, 1983)

Born in Zhuroman (Żuromin), Poland.  His father was a cantor and ritual slaughterer.  He studied in religious schools as well as secular subjects.  He graduated from the state seminary for Jewish teachers in Warsaw.  Until the war broke out in 1939, he worked as a teacher in Warsaw and later in Russia.  He was sent to a camp in the Komi Republic.  In 1946 he returned to Poland.  He subsequently emigrated to Sweden and Finland where he worked as a teacher in the Jewish high school in Helsinki.  From 1947 on, he was living in the United States.  He worked as a teacher in the Teachers Institute at Yeshiva University, New York, and simultaneously he was a textbook writer for the Jewish educational committee.  From 1950 he served as director of the Hebrew Middle School in Queens, New York.  He began to write at a young age, publishing a Hebrew poem in the Lubavitch children’s magazine Hakochav (The star) in Warsaw (1925), which was praised by Chaim Nachman Bialik.  He published poems, stories, essays, and articles in: Haynt (Today), Heftn (Notebooks), and Dos kind (The child) in Warsaw; Dos naye lebn (The new life) in Lodz; Tsukunft (Future), Kinder-zhurnal (Children’s magazine), and Kinder-tsaytung (Children’s magazine) in New York; Far unzere kinder (For our children) in Paris.  In Hebrew: Haolam (The world), Baderekh (On the road), Hadoar (The mail), Galim (Waves), Gilyonot (Sheets).  In Polish: Nasz Przegląd (Our review), Opinia (Opinion), Chwila (Moment), Płomyczek (Flame), Miesięcznik Żydowski (Jewish monthly), and others.  In English: World Over, among others.  He was the author of a number of books of poetry as well as works of pedagogy, such as: (in Hebrew) Ashira leyedidi (I sing to my friend) (Warsaw, 1939); Yalde maḥteret (Children of the underground), stories for children about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising (New York, 1953); a biographical tale, Rabi Yisrael Salanter (New York, 1954); Chag-li shir-li (Holidays and songs for me), children’s poems (New York, 1954).  In Yiddish: Dos lid funem yidishn koylngreber (Poem of the Jewish coalminer) (Warsaw) with illustrations by Kh. Golomb, 16 pp.; Gut yontef, kinder (Happy holiday, children), seventy poems for children and youngsters (New York: Jewish Educational Committee, 1958), 52 pp.  He edited: Olami (My world), for children (Warsaw, 1936-1939); Olami hakatan (My small world), for children (Warsaw, 1936-1939); the school anthology of Yiddish and Hebrew literature, Literatura (Literature) (Warsaw, 1934); the monthly Olam-ḥadash (New world) (New York, 1961-1971); Lemishpaḥa (For the family) (1971-); and others as well.  He used such pseudonyms as the following: A. Elchanan, Alchanani, Achidov, Kh. Alin, Ben-Amiti, and H. Rilski.  He died in New York.

Sources: Y. Shtern, in Haynt (1938); M. Mizish, in Haynt (1938); M. Shtarkman, in Tog (New York) (1949); D. Perski, in Hadoar (New York) (1935); Kh. Av. Khurvits, in Forverts (1947).