A. MAGEN

A. MAGEN (1900-September 1944)

            The pseudonym of Avrom-Moyshe Grubshteyn, he was born in Petrikov-Tribunalski (Piotrków Trybunalski), Lodz region, Poland.  Until age sixteen, he studied in religious primary school, synagogue study hall, and the yeshiva of the Gerer Rebbe.  During WWI he worked as a typesetter for a Yiddish newspaper, later opening his own print shop and (in 1924) the publishing house of Masora in Lodz.  He began writing for the anthology Friling (Spring) in Lodz (1922), later becoming a regular contributor to Beys yankev zhurnal (Beys Yankev journal), Kinder-gorten (Kindergarten), and Der yudisher arbayter (The Jewish laborer), among others—in Lodz (1925-1939).  He published poetry, stories, and items for the stage—among them: “Leg-boymer” (Lag b’Omer), “Yudes” (Judith), and “Rus un noyme” (Ruth and Naomi)—for Jewish religious girls’ schools in Poland.  He was the author of Yudishe shprotsung (Yiddish sprouts), textbook for school, part 1 (Lodz, 1927), 78 pp., part 2 (Lodz, 1928), 143 + 6 pp., part 3 (Lodz, 1929), 200 pp.—which appeared in a number of editions, the last one in 1938.  He also translated from German into Yiddish the historical stories of R. Meir [Marcus] Lehmann, such as (in “Lehmans hoyz-biblyotek” [Lehmann’s house library]): Rabi akiba, historishe ertseylung (Rabbi Akiva, historical tale) (Lodz: Masora, 1927), 121 pp.; Der kadesh fun maynts, historishe ertseylung (The prayer for the dead over Mainz, historical tale) (Lodz: Masora, 1927), 3 parts, 236 pp.; Af eybiker tfise, historishe ertseylung (In perpetual prison, historical tale) (Lodz: Masora, 1927), 64 pp.; Af milkhome (At war) (Lodz: Masora, 1928), 74 pp.  He also reworked Sefer bal shem (Book of the Bal Shem [Tov]) in Hebrew and Yiddish (Lodz, 1932), 120 pp., among other works.  During WWII he was confined in the Lodz ghetto.  At the time of the liquidation of the ghetto, he was deported to Auschwitz and murdered there.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), see index; M. Anilovitsh and M. Yofe, Shriftn far psikhologye un pedagogik (Writings on psychology and pedagogy) 1 (Vilna: YIVO, 1933), p. 474, vol. 2 (Vilna, 1940), p. 389; information from Yankev-Berish Mandelboym in New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks