MENDL MAKOVSKI (MAX MAKOFSKY)

MENDL MAKOVSKI (MAX MAKOFSKY) (1887-January 18, 1955)

            He was born in Tiktin (Tykocin), Lomzhe district, Poland.  He attended religious elementary school and yeshiva.  He came to the United States in 1903 and went to work as a tailor.  He was one of the founders of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers’ Union.  He was a business agent, 1919-1920, for the Union, at first a member of the Workmen’s Circle and later of the International Labor Order.  He was cultural director for the Amalgamated Branch 82 and of the former Jewish people’s order, an active member of the Bronx culture club, and a member of the writers’ association with IKUF (Jewish Cultural Association).  He wrote stories staring in 1925, publishing them in Morgn-frayhayt (Morning freedom) in New York, as well as in other leftist publications.  His books include: A shop in ridzhvud un andere dertseylungen (A sweatshop in Ridgewood and other stories) (New York: Amalgamated Branch 82, 1939), 160 pp.; Dertseylungen (Stories) (New York, 1947), 256 pp.; Yugnt un andere dertseylungen (Youth and other stories) (New York, 1953), 286 pp.  While the theme of the first two volumes primarily concerned the sweatshop, in the third work he also turned to other topics, such as: former concentration camp internees who were saved from Hitler, and their struggles in their new home in the United States; and friction between immigrants and native-born Jews.

Sources: R. Yuklson, in Morgn-frayhayt (New York) (January 30, 1955); A. Bornshteyn, in Morgn-frayhayt (January 18, 1959).

Mortkhe Yofe