Tuesday 9 May 2017

MORTKHE LEV

MORTKHE LEV (1882-January 1943)
            He was born in Pruzhane (Pruzhany), Byelorussia.  He studied at yeshivas and with private tutors, later becoming a photographer.  He was active in the Yiddish school and in secular Jewish cultural work in Pruzhany.  He contributed to the weekly newspaper Pruzhener lebn (Pruzhany life) (1932-1939), in which, among other items, he published his series “Shershever yoysher” (Justice in Sheshev), satirical images from the affluent community providers.  Using the pen name Reb Mortkhele, he wrote for Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper) in Warsaw and Vilner tog (Vilna day), among other serials.  He was horrifically tortured by the Nazis in the Pruzhany ghetto and murdered at Auschwitz.

Sources: Pinkes pruzhane (Records of Pruzhany) (Buenos Aires, 1958), p. 746; information from Zalmen Uryevitsh in New York.
Khayim Leyb Fuks


No comments:

Post a Comment