Thursday, 4 June 2015

MORTKHE GOLDENBERG

MORTKHE GOLDENBERG (1889-1941)
            He was born in the Jewish colony of Zguritse, Bessarabia.  He received a Hassidic religious education, studying in religious elementary school and later on his own in the synagogue study hall—Talmud with commentators.  Secular subject matter he studied by himself or with private tutors.  Beginning in 1913 he published Hebrew verse and stories in Hatsfira (The siren), Haperaḥim (The flowers), Hashiloa (The shiloah), Haolam (The world), Shetilim (Seedlings), Hatekufa (The epoch), Rimon (Pomegranate), Shevilim (Pathways), and in Bucharest Yeshurun (Jerusalem).  In Yiddish he published humorous poems in Yoysef Tunkl’s Yontef bleter (Holiday leaves), Undzer lebn (Our life) in Odessa, Faryhayt (Freedom) in Czernowitz, Dos naye lebn (The new life), the anthology Kultur (Culture), Morgen (Morning) in Kishinev, and Der yid (The Jew), in which he published satirical poems under the pen names of “Di Shpilke” (the needle), “Rav Mag” (chief magician), and “Gog umagog” (Gog and Magog).  He published a book in Hebrew: Reshafim baarava (Rays in the desert) (Kishinev, 1938).  During the Nazi occupation of Bessarabia, he was living in the town of Sokiryany (Sekurian) and committed suicide.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Tsukunft (October 1945); Hatekufa (New York, 1946), pp. 800-1.

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