MENDL LANDAU

MENDL LANDAU (December 12, 1844-1915)

            He was born in Przemyśl, eastern Galicia, into a well-pedigreed family.  He studied in religious elementary school and yeshivas, and he later acquired secular subject matter and foreign languages.  He was a fighter for Jewish rights and, with Yoysef Cohen-Tsedek, disseminated the Jewish Enlightenment through Galicia.  For many years he was the mayor of the town of Dinov (Dinów).  He began writing in Hebrew for Hamagid (The preacher) in Lik and later for Hamevaser (The herald) in Lemberg.  He contributed as well to: Folksfraynd (Friend of the people) in Sonik (Sanok) and Lemberg; Togbat (Daily newspaper) in Lemberg; Haivri (The Jew) in Yiddish (1898); Yudishe folkskalendar (Jewish people’s calendar) in Lemberg (1896); and Gershom Bader’s and Moyshe Frostik’s Kalendarn (Calendars).  He also placed articles in Naye fraye prese (New free press) in Vienna and in the Lemberg-based, Polish-language Słowo Polskie (Polish word) until it became anti-Semitic.  His short letters concerning Jewish life in Galicia, which he published (under the pen name of “An oyrekh af shabes” [A Sabbath guest]) in Lemberg’s Togblat, were popular among Jewish readers.  He died in Sonik.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen arkhiv (Archive of Zalmen Reyzen) (YIVO, New York); information from Yekhiel Shnayd in Chile.

Khayim Leyb Fuks