MATISYOHU
(MAX) MERMELSHTEYN (b. January 15, 1925)
He was born in Skala, eastern
Galicia. He attended religious
elementary school, a Tarbut school, and later a Polish high school in
Lemberg. He was an active leader in the
youth organization Gordonia, “Young Maccabee.”
During WWII he was confined in the Borshchiv ghetto and later hid out in
the forest around Skala. He lived in
Lodz (1945-1946) and
contributed to the local Gordonia publication in Polish, Słowo
młodych (Voice of youth).
In 1947 he departed for Austria and contributed there to the Gordonia
periodical Baderekh (On the road) in
Linz and Renaissance (in German) in
Vienna. In 1948 he arrived in New
York. He studied English literature at
Hunter College and attended courses in the Hertzliya teachers’ seminary. He published reviews of Yiddish books in Hadoar (The mail) and journalistic
articles in Der idisher kemfer (The
Jewish fighter) in New York. From 1956
he was an official in the New York bureau for the Labor Histadrut in the state
of Israel, and he edited various Histadrut publications, primary for the “union
campaigns.” He compiled and edited a
pamphlet, Berl katsenelson, tsu zayn
fuftsenten yortsayt (Berl Katsenelson, on the fifteenth anniversary of his
death) (New York: Latin America Department, Histadrut, 1959), 52 pp. He was last living in Brooklyn, New York.
Benyomen Elis
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