ELEMEYLEKH-NISN NAYFELD

ELEMEYLEKH-NISN NAYFELD (December 2, 1892-October 14, 1956)

            He was born in Novidvor (Nowy Dwor), Warsaw district, Poland.  He was the son of the local rabbi, Ruvn-Yude.  He studied with his father, in religious elementary school, and in yeshiva, and with private tutors for secular topics.  Over the years 1910-1913, he studied in Berlin at the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary and at the university, later coming to Warsaw.  Until 1935 he was rabbi in the Sinai Synagogue and a member of the Jewish community council.  He was cofounder of the Mizrachi organizations: “Tnuva” (an agricultural cooperative), “Dat haavoda” (Religion of labor), “Tora veavoda” (Torah and belief), and “Poale hamizraḥi” (Mizrachi workers).  He participated in Zionist congresses (beginning with the twelfth one), was for many years a member of the presidium of the Zionist “Action Committee,” of the Jewish Agency, “Vaad Hapoel” (Zionist General Council) of World Mizrachi, and other groups.  He was a contributor and co-editor of Mizrachi periodicals in various countries, such as: Mizrakhi-veg (The Mizrachi way), Unzer tribune (Our tribune), Dos idishe lebn (The Jewish life), and Hamizraḥi (The Mizrachi)—in Warsaw; Hator (The turtle-dove), Mitspe (Watchtower), Hatsofe (The spectator), and Tnuva (Produce)—in the land of Israel; among others.  He also placed work in: Lodzer tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper); Haynt (Today) and Moment (Moment) in Warsaw; and Der veg (The way) in Paris).  He served as editor and co-editor of Tora veavoda biblyotek in yidish (Tora veavoda bibliography in Yiddish), fifteen pamphlets (Warsaw, 1926-1938); Biblyografisher araynfir farn yidishn un algemeynem visn (Bibliographic introduction for Jewish and general knowledge) (Warsaw, 1929), 80 pp.; E. Ben-Yehuda’s Datn un khronik (Dates and chronicle) (Warsaw, 1937); Dos religyeze erets-yisroel (Religious Israel), the work of Mizrachi and Hapoel Hamizraḥi (Mizrachi workers) in Israel based on numbers (Warsaw, 1938).  A number of his Hebrew-language articles are included in a pamphlet published in Tel Aviv in 1947 (44 pp.)  He died in Jerusalem.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), see index; Tsienistisher leksikon (Zionist lexicon) (Warsaw, 1929); A. Shulvas, Datn un khronik (Dates and chronicle) (Warsaw, 1937); Sh. Pyetrushka, in Yidishe folks-entsiklopedye (Jewish people’s encyclopedia), vol. 2 (Montreal, 1943), p. 264; N. Shemen, Batsiung tsu arbet un arbeter, sotsyaler yoysher, loyt tanakh, talmud un yaades (Attitude of labor and laborers, social justice according to the Tanakh, the Talmud, and Judaism) (Toronto, 1963), vols. 1 and 2, see indexes; Who’s Who in World Jewry (1955), p. 551; Who’s Who in Israel (1956), p. 211; obituary notices in the press in the state of Israel.

Khayim Leyb Fuks