VIKTOR MIRSKI

VIKTOR MIRSKI (1886-October 1941)

            He hailed from Russia.  In 1905 he arrived in the United States.  For a time he studied at City College, later working as an insurance agent and a traveling businessman.  From 1911 he was active as a journalist.  For a time he worked as a news writer with Yidishes tagebat (Jewish daily newspaper) and later for: Herman Bernshteyn’s Der tog (The day) in New York (1914); and Louis Miller’s Di varhayt (The truth).  Over the years 1920-1925, he was an internal contributor to Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal).  In late 1925 he settled in Philadelphia, where he edited the local edition of New York’s Morgn-zhurnal, and from 1927 until his death, he was a regular contributor to the theater page of Di idishe velt (The Jewish world).  He was the founder and editor of the monthly Familyen-zhurnal (Family journal), “a monthly anthology of literature, art, humor, jokes, and satire,” in New York—twelve issues appeared from March 1911 until February 1912.  He served as editor (1922-1924) of Der idisher almanakh un yor bukh (The Jewish almanac and yearbook), “a yearbook of necessary information, chronology, and statistics” (New York, 1922), 278 pp., (New York, 1923), 254 pp., (New York, 1924), 234 pp.  In 1922 he revived “Familyen-zhurnal” under the title Froyen-zhurnal (Women’s journal), “a monthly dedicated to the woman and the home”—it appeared from May 1922 until September 1923, twelve issues in all, with several English pages at the end of the issue.  He died in Philadelphia.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), see index; Y. Khaykin, Yidishe bleter in amerike (Yiddish newspapers in America) (New York, 1946), see index; information from D. L. Mekler in New York and Mrs. Hofman in Philadelphia.

Khayim Leyb Fuks