NOKHUM VAYNRITSH

NOKHUM VAYNRITSH (b. November 14, 1884)

            He was born in Warsaw, Poland.  Until age ten he studied in religious primary school, thereafter becoming a laborer.  In 1899 he departed for London, and there he became active in the anarchist movement.  At that time he befriended Arn Mints, brother of Michael and Moyshe Mints, and when Arn later lost his sight, Vaynritsh was for a number of years his guide.  In 1905 he moved to the United States and was active in circles of Jewish anarchists.  For many years, he served as a member of the administrative committee of Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of labor), in which he also debuted in print in 1918 with a polemical piece entitled “Nokhum hersh” (Nokhum Hersh), and from that point he published features, stories, and articles in Fraye arbeter shtime, Forverts (Forward), and Kinder zhurnal (Children’s journal)—in New York.  He also published under the pseudonyms: Nokhum Hersh and Nokhum Prager, among others.  He was last living in Jamaica, New York.

Sources: Yoysef Kahan, Di yidish-anarkhistishe bavegung in amerike (The Jewish anarchist movement in America) (Philadelphia, 1945), p. 432; Sh. Vinitser, in Forverts (New York) (October 1-5, 1950); M. Shutts, in Fraye arbeter shtime (New York) (January 13, 1956).