MAYER-DOVID (DAVID) ALTER

MAYER-DOVID (DAVID) ALTER (August 3, 1889-October 10, 1970)

Born in Vlotslavek (Wloclawek), Poland; studied in religious schools and in a Russian school.  He was a laborer, a cultural activist in the Bund, founder of the Yiddish library of ORT (Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades) and secretary of Tsukunft (Future), the cultural society associated with the Bund.  Due to police persecution, he was forced to emigrate, and he lived for a year (1920) in Germany.  From 1921, he lived in the United States.  He began publishing in the Vilna newspaper Folks-tsaytung (People’s newspaper, 1907), and he wrote correspondence on the lives of Jewish workers—later, in Tsayt (The times, St. Petersburg), Der fraynd (The friend), and Lebns-fragen (Vital questions) (Warsaw).  Until the war began in 1939, he was the New York correspondent for the Warsaw newspaper Folks-tsaytung, and he served on the editorial board of Yoyvl-bukh (Jubilee volume) of Branch 611 of the Workmen’s Circle (New York, 1951), 312 pp.  He published under the pseudonyms: A-P Ben-Yitskhok, A-R, M. Yunger, Yitskhokson, M. A-R, and M. D.  He died in New York.