MORTKHE GOTESDINER

MORTKHE GOTESDINER (May 23, 1909-February 8, 1981)

            He now goes by the family name of Ovadyahu.  He was born in Shedlets (Siedlce), Poland.  He descended from a Hassidic family, from the line going back to R. Akiva Eiger.  He studied in religious primary school, later graduating from an agronomical middle school, and he took training in preparation for emigration to Palestine.  He spent a period of time in the major cities of Western Europe, and he was an auditor at the universities there.  Later, he worked as a Hebrew teacher, and he served as a leader in the Zionist youth movement and in Hashomer hatsair (The young guard).  In 1931 he made aliya to Palestine, where he worked as a farmer.  He began to write when still very young.  At the age of sixteen, he met Bialik in London, and Bialik encouraged him to write more.  Under the name (Bereḥya) Ovadyahu—and under such pseudonyms as M. En-Roi, Y. Roani, Aḥimin, Yaakov Ish-tam, and the like—he published his literary works and currents events articles in such serials as: Davar (Word), Al hamishmar (On guard), Hador (The generation), Moznaim (Balanced), Gilyonot (Tablets), and Gazit (Hewn stone), among others, in Israel.  He also placed writings in Hadoar (The mail) in New York, and in Yiddish in Tsukunft (Future) in New York as well, as well as in other journals.  He authored a number of books in Hebrew, such as: Adam baḥuts (Man outside) (Tel Aviv: Masada, 1940); Mipi bialik (From the mouth of Bialik) (Tel Aviv: Masada, 1944).  He lived in Israel and died in Tel Aviv..

Sources: David Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the founders and builders of Israel), vol. 4 (Tel Aviv, 1950); Who’s Who in World Jewry (New York, 1955); Who Is Who in Israel (1952).