MOYSHE VEKSLER (MORRIS WECHSLER)

MOYSHE VEKSLER (MORRIS WECHSLER) (January 1849-February 23, 1919)

            He was born in the village of Mihályi, Borsod, Hungary.  He studied with his father, R. Yisroel Veksler, as well as with other rabbis.  At age twenty he married the daughter of a wealthy man, and in 1872 published in the city of Miskolc (Mishkolts) a newspaper in Judeo-German, Di yudishe prese (The Jewish press).  In 1885 he moved to the United States and settled in New York, where over the years 1886-1889 he published the extremely Orthodox Yiddish weekly, Nyu yorker yudishe tsaytung (New York Jewish newspaper).  He also published Di vayberishe tsaytung (Women’s newspaper), a weekly written in Hungarian Yiddish, in New York, 1888-1889—the first Yiddish newspaper for women.  He also edited the weekly Di naye post (The new mail) in New York (1888), to which Dovid Apotheker was a contributor.  In 1895 he was serving as the rabbi in “Congregation Bris Sholom” in New York.  He was also the author of a whole series of books in Hebrew, such as: Birkat moshe (Blessing of Moses), Vayidaber moshe (And, Moses said), Vayisaper moshe (And, Moses recounted), Torat hashem (God’s Torah), and more—all commentaries on the Torah.  He died in New York.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Ben-Tsien Ayzenshtadt, Otsar zikhronot (Treasury of memories) (New York, 1927), p. 54; K. Marmor, Der onhoyb fun der yidisher literatur in amerike (The beginning of Yiddish literature in America) (New York, 1944), see index; Dr. H. Frank, in Geshikhte fun der yidisher arbeter-bavegung in di fareynikte shtatn (History of the Jewish labor movement in the United States), vol. 2 (New York, 1945), pp. 388, 440, 442; Y. Khaykin, Yidishe bleter in amerike (Yiddish newspapers in America) (New York, 1946), p. 63; James Wechsler, The Age of Suspicion (New York, 1951).