ELYE-KHAYIM KHINITSH

ELYE-KHAYIM KHINITSH (January 5, 1884-1972)

            He was born in Starobin, Slutsk region, Byelorussia.  He studied in religious elementary schools and yeshivas, and he later graduated from pedagogical course of study in Grodno.  He worked as a teacher in a Russian state school in the Jewish agricultural colony of Sladkovodnaia, Ekaterinoslav district; later, he taught in the women’s high school “Yehudiya” in Warsaw.  He published a series of Hebrew children’s stories under the title Shevilim (Pathways) (Warsaw: Gitlin, 1920s?).  In 1922 he made his way to Mexico City, where he was one of the pioneers of the Yiddish press there.  In 1927 he initiated and (with M. Verlinski and Y. Verner) edited the hectographically-produced Byuletin fun y. m. h. a. (Bulletin of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association), which appeared between February and November 1927, and later the journal Undzer vort (Our word).  He went on to publish articles in virtually the entire Mexican Yiddish press; in Meksikaner yidishe lebn (Mexican Jewish life) he advocated the creation of a Jewish community council in Mexico City; in the weekly newspaper Undzer vokh (Our week) he wrote about pedagogical matters; and for Undzer vort he wrote about “assimilation and self-scorn,” among other matters.  He also wrote for Undzer lebn (Our life) and Der veg (The way).  And, he occasionally placed work in: Tsienistishe shtime (Zionist voice), and he ran a Hebrew-language column in Meksikaner lebn (Mexican life).  He died in Mexico City.

Sources: M. Glikovski, in Der veg, yubiley-oygabe, 1930-1940 (El Camino, jubilee edition, 1930-1940) (Mexico City, 1940); Y. Glants, in Der veg, yubiley-oygabe, 1930-1940, p. 196; oral information from M. Glikovski.

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