MOYSHE DIKSHTEYN (MOSHE DICKSTEIN)

MOYSHE DIKSHTEYN (MOSHE DICKSTEIN) (1890-February 26, 1955)

            He was born in the town of Rakov (Raków, Rakaw), near Radom, Poland, into a well-off family.  At age five he was orphaned on his mother’s side and was raised by an uncle in Apt (Opatów).  He studied in religious elementary school, synagogue study hall, and with private tutors.  He was active as a youngster in the “Little Bund” and later in the Zionist labor movement.  He was arrested for a time in 1904 in Warsaw where he was then working as a laborer.  In 1913 he emigrated to the United States and lived until 1914 in New York.  From 1914 he was in Montreal where he was active among Jewish laborers.  He was member of the central committee of the Labor Zionist Party and chairman of the Zionist Committee for Israel and Canada.  He was a leader in the Canadian Jewish Congress and co-founder of the Canadian-Palestine business organization CanPal, among other such posts.  Most important, though, he was active in the Histadrut Campaign.  He began his journalistic activities in 1910.  He wrote reportage pieces for Fraynd (Friend) in Warsaw, and later until he left Poland he was an internal contributor to Haynt (Today) in Warsaw, in which he published reportage pieces and articles on Jewish issues.  In Canada he wrote for: Veg (Way) and Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal, among others.  He died in Montreal.

Sources: Y. Midrash, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (December 9, 1955); B. Z. Zak, in Keneder odler (December 10, 1955); D. Kogit, in Keneder odler (October 12, 1956); Kogit, in Dos vort (Ottawa) 4 (January 1, 1956); Y. Rabinovitsh, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (April 6, 1956); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Tog (New York) (March 2, 1956); Rabinovitsh, in Keneder odler (March 25, 1956; February 24, 1957).