MIKHL G. LANDO

MIKHL G. LANDO (1874-January 1, 1945)

            He was born in Kiev, Ukraine.  In 1900 he graduated from the medical faculty of Kiev University.  Because of his active involvement in the illegal Russian socialist movement, he was persecuted by the authorities and had to flee Russia.  In early 1901 he moved to New York.  Over the years 1904-1918, he was secretary of the association “Fraynd fun bund” (Friends of the Bund) in New York.  For many years he worked as a doctor for the Workmen’s Circle on the East Side.  He was also well-known as a lecturer on science and literary topics.  He began writing articles in: Der arbayter (The worker) in 1905 (New York), for which he would later become a regular contributor until 1911; Tsukunft (Future) in New York, for which he would be a member of the editorial board until 1911 and in which he published essays on Russian and general European literature—including: “Der inerlekher krizis fun der rusisher inteligents” (The internal crisis of the Russian intellegentsia); “Di eybig vanderendike menshheyt” (Eternally wandering mankind); “Der fergangenheyt un tsukunft fun gaystigen leben” (The past and future of spiritual life); “Natsyonalizm in der literatur” (Nationalism in literature); and “Der modernism in der literatur” (Modernism in literature).  His series of essays on the works of Anton Chekhov attracted considerable attention at the time in Jewish literary circles in New York.  He also placed work in: Dos naye leben (The new life), Litertur un leben (Literature and life), and Di naye tsayt (The new times)—all in New York—as well as in Russian-language socialist publications in America and Russia.  He died in New York.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2; A. Sh. Zaks, Di geshikhte fun arbeter-ring (The history of Workmen’s Circle), vol. 2 (New York, 1925), see index; Y. Yeshurin, in Tsukunft (New York) (May-June 1942); obituary notices in Forverts and Tog (both New York) (January 3, 1945); Y. Sh. Herts, Di yidishe sotsyalistishe bavegung in amerike, 70 yor sotsyalistishe tetikeyt, 30 yor yidishe sotsyalistishe farband (The Jewish socialist movement in America, seventy years of socialist activity, thirty years of the Jewish Socialist Union) (New York, 1954), p. 135.

Khayim Leyb Fuks