MORTKHE SPEKTOR (MORDECAI SPECTOR)

MORTKHE SPEKTOR (MORDECAI SPECTOR) (May 5, 1858-March 15, 1925)

            He was born in Uman, Kiev district, Ukraine, into a family that descended from the prominent Galician Chayes (Chajes) family.  His father Yankev Spektor was a fiery Talner Hassid, an intimate of the rebbe.  “On my mother’s side,” Mortkhe Spektor recounted, “I had five uncles, as strong and healthy as oak and as tall as pine trees.”  His mother was his father’s second wife, and Mortkhe was the youngest child.  When he was two years old, his father died.  He grew up a robust lad, more outdoors than in the home, and even more in the fields and woods than in religious elementary school.  Until age thirteen he was at home with his mother, studying in synagogue study hall with a Talmud teacher, a Lithuanian, but his teachers implanted in him no excessive eagerness to study.  When he became bar mitzvah, his mother sent him to her step-son-in-law in Heissen, and later she sent him to his older brother Moyshe in a town near Vinitse (Vinnytsa).  Later still, this brother and his family along with Mortkhe moved to Vinnytsa.  In a small synagogue there, he met the Vinnytsa rabbi, R. Yosin, the father of Y. Y. Linetski, and Mortkhe had pity on him because his son had become a “heretic,” but a short time later Spektor himself began to befriend “heretics.”  There arrived in their city for a short time two “esteemed Germans”—in capes and top hats—they were Avrom Goldfaden and Yitskhok-Yoyel Linetski, and they made quite an impression on Spektor.  Also, on one occasion he was with his brother in a dry goods shop when he met Dovid Engelshteyn, the son-in-law of Leyzer Tsvayfl (Eliezer Zweifel), a teacher at the “Shkola” (School), a follower of the Jewish Enlightenment, and a poet.  Spektor became a frequent visitor at his home and read Enlightenment literature with him.  The more he became “caught up in the Enlightenment,” the less his fanatical brother wished for him to be around, and thus sent him home—to Uman and his mother.  He was fourteen at the time.  He had read through Linetski’s Dos poylishe yingl (The Polish lad), Ruvn-Osher Broydes’s Hadat vehaḥayim (Religion and life), Ayzik-Meyer Dik’s stories, and Mendele’s Dos kleyne mentshele (The little fellow).  With every penny he saved, he bought “modern booklets.”  He was contemplating the idea of going to study in the Zhitomir rabbinical seminary, but the answer he received from there was that they had no open places in the school.  By chance he became acquainted at the time with a Russian engineer, who for a long time studied secular subject matter with Spektor.  Meanwhile, his mother remarried, and Spektor again traveled to his brother in Vinnytsa and for a short time there was a partner in a flour business.  When he was nineteen years of age, his mother died, and he then moved to Odessa, where he was among M. L. Lilienblum and other Jewish writers and followers of the Jewish Enlightenment.  When his small bit of money that he brought with him from Vinnytsa began to run out, he set out to do common labor in a paper factory.  “I was proud that I was earning my bread not by teaching or giving lessons, not through commerce or brokerage or other empty livelihoods, as all Jewish youth who’d come to Odessa were engaged in—but through hard work!”  At that time in St. Petersburg a Russian Jewish newspaper commenced publication, Russkiy Evrey (Russian Jew), and Spektor published several correspondence pieces concerning workers’ lives.  After the pogroms of 1881, he left for Medzhybizh (Międzyboż) with the aim of learning a trade, while at the same time preparing for university and going abroad.  He did not, however, learn a trade in Międzyboż, where he gave private lessons, read a great deal, and wrote even more.  “I would sit and write all night long, not noticing that time had flown by….  I wrote up short impressions of living people and also began writing a long novel, and as the style was at the time—in several parts….  I gave the long novel the title Der yudisher muzhik (The Jewish peasant).”  Having written the first part of the novel, Spektor felt that the work was now not for him, and he put the manuscript aside and launched into writing another novel about town life—“A roman on a nomen” (A novel without a title).  He sent the first chapter of the novel to Aleksander Tsederboym’s weekly Yudishes folks-blat (Jewish people’s newspaper) in St. Petersburg.  This was in late 1882.  Tsederboym praised Spektor highly and urged him to write subsequent chapters; from the first week of 1883, this “novel without a title” began to appear in Yudishes folks-blat.  In the same newspaper, Spektor also published a series of feature pieces.  In 1884 his novel Der yudisher muzhik was published there as well—a period novel with “Ḥibat Tsiyon” (Love of Zion) tendencies, which had extraordinary success; Spektor was invited to St. Petersburg to serve as assistant editor of Yudishe folks-blat.  During his time in St. Petersburg, Spektor wrote a great deal.  He published features, travel impressions, holiday stories, reviews, and longer works, such as: “Aniim veevyoynim” (The indigent), “R’ traytil” (Reb Traytil), “A shturmer guter-yid” (A silent Hassid), and “A velt mit veltelekh” (A world with little worlds), among others.  There he married the daughter of the Hebrew and Yiddish writer and censor A. Sh. Fridberg—Izabella, herself a writer—she was a great aid to Spektor in his work.  A writer with a great inclination toward newspaper work and journalism, Spektor gained considerable journalistic experience at Yudishes folks-blat, and he agreed to publish a newspaper on his own.  He left his job with Yudishes folks-blat and expended everything he possessed—2500 rubles—to get permission for a Yiddish newspaper, but he ended with nothing.  In 1887 he and his family moved from St. Petersburg to Warsaw and there published the first volume of his annual Der hoyz-fraynd (The house friend).  At about the same time, incidentally, Sholem Aleichem, a close friend of Spektor’s, began publishing in Kiev his Yudishe folks-biblyotek (Jewish people’s library) and paid his writers 100-200 rubles or more for an article, while Spektor was paying nothing and in special cases almost nothing.  Thus, Sholem Aleichem’s Yudishe folks-biblyotek was a big blow for Spektor.  In 1894 he, together with Y. L. Perets and Dovid Pinski, began publishing Di yontef-bletlikh (Holiday sheets), but Spektor took some material from the first numbers of the periodical and himself published several issues of Vokhedige bletlikh (Weekly sheets), among them: Der lamtern (The lantern) and Dos vider-kol (The echo) in Warsaw (1895).  He also published Varshever yudisher kalendar (Warsaw Jewish calendar) (1893/1894 and 1895/1896).  Later when Der yud (The Jew) was founded (January 1899), he began to contribute to it, among other items, the stories: “Kalikes” (Cripples), “A shtrayk fun kabtsonim” (A strike of paupers), “Brilen” (Eyeglasses), and (using the pen name “Emes”) he ran a regular column entitled “Shtedt un shtedlekh” (City and towns)—“feature pieces on the life in the Jewish provinces” (this very column he also ran in other newspapers, when he had left Der yud).  In early August 1899 (according to N. Mayzil), Spektor and Y. L. Perets were arrested because of their presence at illegal meetings of labor revolutionaries.  They spent their time in prison in the Warsaw Citadel.  In 1902-1903, Spektor together with Dr. Kh. D. Hurvits edited the weekly Di yudishe folkstsaytung (The Jewish people’s newspaper) and the supplement Froyen-velt (Women’s world), published by Tushiya.  In 1903 he edited the anthology Hilf (Help), the revenue from which went to victims of the Kishinev pogrom.  In 1906 he served as editor for Tsayt (Time) in Vilna, and in 1907 for Warsaw’s Fraytog (Friday), at the same time that he was contributing to: Fraynd (Friend), Tog (Day), and other serials.  Together with Sh. Hokhberg, he founded in 1907 and edited the newspaper Unzer leben (Our life).  In 1909 he was publishing the daily newspaper Di naye velt (The new world)—later, it merged with Moment (Moment) and Spektor was one of its principal contributors.  In late 1914 when the German military was approaching Warsaw, Spektor left for Odessa, contributed to Hokhberg’s Unzer leben (using the pen name “L-n” he had published in 1913 a series in this serial on Jews who converted, entitled “Yidishe neshomes” [Jewish souls]).  Spektor survived numerous state uprisings in Odessa.  He was the founder of “Kultur-lige” (Culture league) in Odessa.  In the first years of the Russian Revolution and civil war, Spektor and his second wife (a sister of Dovid Pinski’s wife) suffered from great deprivation.  He underwent two operations at this time, and he barely escaped with his life.  In late 1920 he stole across the Soviet-Romanian border, and from there set out for the United States via Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy, Switzerland, and France—and everywhere the Jewish community welcomed him enthusiastically.  He reached America in the autumn of 1921.  Initially, he published in Di tsayt (The times) in New York, later becoming a regular contributor to Yidishes tageblat (Jewish daily newspaper) in New York; he published short pieces and a series of descriptions of what was going on in Russia and Ukraine under the title “Fun yener velt” (From the other world).  He also published several new novels, as well as memoirs entitled Mayn lebn (My life).  He died in New York.

            Spektor represents the midpoint between the classical Jewish writers and pulp fiction.  He “built the bridge from Shomer [N. M. Shaykevitsh] to Mendele, to Perets, Sholem Aleichem,” noted A. Mukdoni, and “from Shomer’s novels to Spektor’s Yidisher muzhik, the transition is natural and intelligible, for when your path is pure and simple, you can feel it without the developmental process.”  “Spektor was the writer of the timely theme,” wrote Shmuel Niger, “even the daily theme.  He was rooted in life and loved life.  He initially saw utility in literature, substantive achievement, and not art for art’s sake.  He was…a born journalist, and his goal was not the creation of new lives or types of lives, but the improvement of the surrounding daily way of life….  He was in general interested only in the facts of life, in life’s issues, and only in such facts and issues that are genuine and cast before everyone’s eyes.”  Spektor was the only member of his generation who lived off of his writing.  He was part of the Yiddish newspaper universe.  He was the writer of daily affairs.  As he described it himself: “From 1883 there were no newspapers in Russia, in which I was not one of the most important contributors or editors.  The Yiddish press was raised on my shoulders.”  He was a man of the people, in his healthy observance of life, in the entirety of his character, in his common sense, in his not racking his brains and ruminating, in his love for the enjoyment of life, and in his genuine, uncontrived simplicity.  “I had earlier lived for decades,” stated Ruvn Brainin, “in a circle of refined, shrewd, clever, and culturally-rich writers and artists, who always persevered in both rumination and psychologizing.  The majority of them were people with irritated, pent-up nerves, with morbid emotions, with a burning hunger for recognition and popularity, with bizarre whims and ambitions.  Coming out of such circles, I was delighted to see before me a Yiddish storyteller and portrayer who had remained primitive his entire life, with a full, healthy soul, without any internal ruptures or tears, a Yiddish novelist, a man of the people who found joy in everything, bore no one animosity or jealousy, [a man] who sincerely rejoiced in his portion.”  “He may be the only natural talent,” commented Dovid Frishman, “to which our modern literature can attest.  I can think of no one else among us who has allowed himself to be so little misled by a culture than he….  Such a talent will not, naturally, create something immense and mighty, but what it does create has a hand and a foot.”  Initially, Spektor was devoted to folklore collection: already in 1886, when he took his first steps into the realm of literature, he published in Yudishes folks-blat (no. 4) an article on “Yiddish folk expressions,” and he turned to his readers and encouraged them to collect folk sayings, incantations, and the like and to send them to him.  He received over 1000 letters with a great deal of material.  A portion of this collection was published in alphabetical order in Hoyz-fraynd and a separate publication also appeared: Di yidishe shprikhverter (The Yiddish sayings).  He later included his collection of sayings in Ignatz Bernstein’s unpublished folklore collection.  Also, his historical novel, “Der bal-shem-tov” (The Bal-Shem-Tov) (Hoyz-fraynd 4 [1895]), was structured along Hassidic folk motifs.  People dubbed Spektor “the father of Yiddish literature”—for, as Arn Tsaytlin put it, “more than a father or one of the fathers of Yiddish literature, Spektor was a good-natured uncle who loved to tell stories.  Uncle Mortkhe, a man with broad diction, would chat with the reader seriously….  He would actually write truisms frequently, but over time those truisms acquired the coloration and aroma of the past, and in the present they possessed a considerable cultural-historical interest.”  “An honest realist with a sharp eye,” noted Zalmen Reyzen, “a man knowledgeable of the lives of the Jewish people, himself a breadwinner, with a warm full-blooded love for the concrete, tangible world, with a simple, healthy sense of its manifestations, he played a strong part in fortifying the artistic element of common depiction in Yiddish literature and improving the literary taste of the Yiddish folk reader.  He was especially successful with shorter items—sketches and stories, in which he described intimate Jewish family life, holidays and Sabbaths, the Jewish shtetl, the sufferings and joys of ‘little people,’ tradesmen, laborers, merchants, shopkeepers, and the like.  There is in his depictions of the old well-established Jewish way of life an epic simplicity, a warm sincerity.  Cozy and easy-going, as if chatting with a reader, with whom he was as if internally bonded, fraternally close and familiar, Spektor the storyteller often glowed with a kind of compassion for his poor heroes.  His longer works, the full-length novels, which he wrote over the course of more than forty years of his literary activity, were artistically much weaker, but their role in the history of the development of modern Yiddish literature is immense, irrespective of their faults.”

            His work in book form would include: Der yudisher muzhik (St. Petersburg, 1884), second, improved edition (Vilna: Y. Funk, 1894), 304 pp.; Der yudisher erdarbeter (The Jewish farmer) (Warsaw: Shreberk, 1921), in the series “Masterworks from Yiddish literature,” edited by Sh. Rozhanski (Buenos Aires, 1963), 268 pp.; R’ traytil, a geshribene mayse fun dem kleynem yudishen shtodtil zlidniṿke (R. Traytil, a written tale from the small town of Zlidnivke) (St. Petersburg: Yeshay Tsederboym, 1884), two parts in one volume, subsequent editions (Vilna: Almone vehaakhim rom [The widow and the brothers Romm], 1896), (Warsaw: Razumovski, 1904), part 1, 80 pp.; Aniim veevyoynim, oder gliklikhe un umgliklikhe (The indigent, or happy and unhappy) (St. Petersburg: Ts. H. Pines, 1885), 258 pp., second improved edition (Vilna, 1905); A shturmer guter yud, an ertsehlung fun der letster rusish-tirkisher milkhome (A silent Hassid, a story from the recent Russo-Turkish war) (St. Petersburg, 1885), 64 pp.; A velt mit kleyne veltlikh, a lebens ertsehlung (A world with little worlds, a story from life) (St. Petersburg: Yisroel Lev and partner, 1886), 174 pp.; Yudish! ertsehlung fun hayntige tsayten (Yiddish! a story of our time) (St. Petersburg: Ts. H. Pines, 1886), 72 pp.; A vaybershe neshome, roman (A woman’s soul, a novel) (Berdichev: Yankev Sheftil, 1891), 32 pp.; Yudishe studenten un yudishe tekhter (Jewish students and Jewish daughters) (Berdichev: Meyer Epshteyn, 1892), 124 pp., subsequent edition under the title Di freylin klara oder yudishe studentin un yudishe tekhter (Ms. Klara, or Jewish students and Jewish daughters) (Berdichev: Sheftil, 1903), 124 pp.; Khayim yentes, ertsehlung (Khayim, Yente’s son, a story) (Berdichev, 1892), 32 pp.; Der hayntiger yudisher muzhik, roman (The contemporary Jewish peasant, a novel) (Berdichev: Sheftil, 1892), 32 pp., later edition (New York: Hebrew Publishing Company, 1910), 29 pp.; Di yudishe velt, a zamlung ertsehlungen (The Jewish world, a collection of stories) (Warsaw: Y. Funk, 1903), 203 pp.; Dray parshoyn, ertsehlung fun di 70-er un 80-er yohren (Three persons, a story from the 1870s and 1880s) (Warsaw: Boymriter, 1896), 71 pp., a supplement to Hoyz-fraynd (vol. 5), subsequent editions (Brooklyn: Hebrew American Publishing Company, 1901), 63 pp. and (New York: Hebrew Publishing Company, 190?) 63 pp., and under the title Helden fun der tsayt (Heroes of the time) (Warsaw: Progres, 1909), 71 pp.; Yontef shtimungen (Holiday moods) (Warsaw: Hashaḥar, 1900), 229 pp., later edition (Warsaw: Hatsfira, 190?), 232 pp. and (Warsaw: Hashaḥar, 1910), 232 pp.; Kalikes, ertsehlung (Cripples, a story) (Vilna: Y. Funk, 1902), 144 pp.; A shtrayk fun kabtsonim, ertsehlung (A strike of paupers, a story) (Warsaw: Bikher far ale, 1905), 11 pp.; A regen, ertsehlung (A rain, a story) (Warsaw: Bikher far ale, 1909), 18 pp.; A finstere khasene, ertsehlung (A sinister wedding, a story) (Warsaw: Bikher far ale, 1905), 21 pp.; Shteht oyf tsu slikhes, ertsehlung (Stand up for slikhes [a High Holiday prayer], a story) (Warsaw: Bikher far ale, 1905), 12 pp.; In shtub un in gas (At home and on the street) (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., 1909), 15 pp.; Goldele (Darling) (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., 1909), 13 pp.; Sorele (Little Sarah) (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., 1909), 11 pp.; An eytse (A piece of advice) (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., 1909); Yudishe ashires (Jewish wealth) (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., 1909), 53 pp.; Yudisher nakhes (Jewish pleasure) (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., 1909), 27 pp.; Man un vayb (Man and wife) (New York: New York Publishing Co., 1909), 19 pp.; Shmerls simkhe (Shmerl’s happy event) (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., 1909), 24 pp.; Tsvey feslekh vayn (Two casks of wine) (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., 1909), 13 pp.; Vegs-layt (Travelers) (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., 1909), 62 pp.; Erets yisroel pushke (Alms box for the land of Israel) (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., 1909), 20 pp.; Sore peyse (Sarah Peyse) (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., 1909), 11 pp.;Sholem fayvishke (Sholem Fayvishke) (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., 1909), 12 pp.; A roman ohn a nomen (A novel without a title) (Warsaw, 1909), 155 pp., subsequent editions (1910; Warsaw, 1911, 1913); Moment-fotografyes, vi azoy shrayben yudishe shriftshteler (Moment-photos, how Yiddish authors write) (Warsaw: A. Gitlin, 1911), 81 pp.; Mit y. l. perets in festung (With Y. L. Perets in the Fortress) (Odessa, 1919), 80 pp.  In addition, we should include the separate editions of his shorter stories, which do not always indicate publisher, or when and where published, such as, by way of example: Sheyn un mies, oder tsvey khavertes (Beautiful and ugly or two girlfriends) (Warsaw: ?, 1895); Der modner shuster (The strange cobbler) (Warsaw: ?, 1894); Der raykher feter, ertsehlung fun izabella (The rich uncle, a story by Izabella) (Warsaw: ?: 1894); Purim un peysekh (Purim and Passover) (Berdichev: M. Epshteyn, 1893), 36 pp.; Der vaybersher erev yontef (The women’s holiday eve) (Warsaw: M. Epshteyn, 1892); Gut gelebt un sheyn geshtorben (Lived well and died beautiful) (Warsaw: A. Boymriter, 1894); and a series of new stories entitled “Oys lebn fun di letste umgliklekhe yorn” (From life over the recent unhappy years): “Dos shvebele” (The match), “Der toyt fun heymlozer” (The death of a homeless man), “Gospodin balebos” (Mr. Householder), “Kaboles shabes” (Welcoming the Sabbath), and others (published in Odessa?).  Important works by Spektor, which may be found in various other publications, would include: “Dos yidishe teater amol un haynt” (The Yiddish theater then and now), Yudishe folk (Jewish people) (Vilna) 6-7 (1906); “Zikhroynes vegn sholem aleykhem” (Memoirs of Sholem Aleichem), in Tsum ondenk fun sholem aleykhem, zamlbukh (To the memory of Sholem Aleichem, anthology) (Petrograd: Y. L. Perets fond, 1917) and in Kultur (Culture) (Czernowitz, 1921): on Perets, in Di tsukunft (The future) (New York) (April, August, December 1922); and memoirs of Y. Martov-Tsederboym, in Yidishes tageblat (New York); among others.  Spektor’s Ale verk (Collected writings) appeared in two editions: (1) three volumes (discontinued mid-way) (Warsaw: Progres, 1912-1913)—vol. 1: Tog un nakht (Day and night), 160 pp.; vol. 2: Heymishe bilder (Familiar images), 165 pp.; vol. 3: Yontef ertsehlungen (Holidays stories), 252 pp.—(2) this edition appeared after Spektor’s death (Warsaw: Aḥisefer, 1927-1929)—vol. 1: Mayn lebn, kinderyorn (My life, childhood years), 297 pp.; vol. 2: Mayn lebn, yugntyorn (My life, youth), 168 pp.; vol. 3: Soydes, roman in tsvey teyln (Secrets, a novel in two parts), 449 pp.; vol. 4: Di klole fun sheynkeyt, roman (The curse of beauty, a novel), 497 pp.; vol. 5: Elnte un farshtoysene, roman (Despised and cursed, a novel), 259 pp.; vol. 6: Shmad un fartsveyflung, roman (Apostasy and despair, a novel), 414 pp.; vol. 7: Kalikes, roman (Cripples, a novel), 145 pp.; vol. 8: Yidishe tekhter, roman (Jewish daughters, a novel), 150 pp.; vol. 9: Afn shliakh fun lebn, roman (On the direct road of life, a novel), 197 pp.; vol. 10: Spektor-bukh (Volume for [Mortkhe] Spektor), comp. David Kassel, 262 pp., including a bibliographic listing.  Spektor’s writings have been translated into Hebrew, Russian, Polish, German, French, Hungarian, and English.  In Hebrew: Otot umoftim (Signals and exchanges) (Warsaw, 1887), 62 pp.—written originally in Hebrew with help his father-in-law A. Fridberg; Sipurim vetsiyurim (Stories and portrayals), trans. Gnessin (Warsaw: Tushiya, 1900), 76 pp.; Ashir varash (Rich and poor) (Jerusalem: Moriah, 1922), 25 pp.  Among the pseudonyms he used: Emes, L-n, and M. K. Shneefal.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2, with a bibliography; Spektor-bukh (Volume for [Mortkhe] Spektor) (Warsaw, 1929), 262 pp.; B. Gorin, in Di tsukunft (New York) (December 1894), pp. 7-13; Yoyel Entin, in Di tsukunft (February 1906), pp. 63-66; D. Frishman, Shriften (Writings), vol. 3 (Warsaw-New York, 1911), pp. 71-95; Frishman, in Di tsukunft (January 1928); E. R. Malachi, ed., Igrot david frishman (The letters of David Frishman) (New York, 1927); Malachi, in Yidishe kultur (New York) (August-September 1963); M. Y. Freyd, Yamim veshanim (Days and years), part 2 (Tel Aviv, 1938/1939); Freyd, in Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) 18 (1927), pp. 340-42; Avrom Reyzen, in Di tsukunft (1920), pp. 732-33; A. Reyzen, Epizodn fun mayn lebn (Episodes from my life), part 1 (Vilna, 1929), pp. 226, 227, 230, 235, 288, part 2, pp. 30-33, 36-37, 138, 160-62, 164-65, 196-97, part 3 (1935), pp. 111, 151-60, 235-237; Reyzen, in Di tsukunft (December 1934); N. Oyslender, in Tsaytshrift (Minsk) 1 (1926); Oyslender, in Yidishe literatur (Yiddish literature), a reader (Kiev, 1928); A. Gurshteyn, “Sakhaklen fun der mendele-forshung” (Summaries of Mendele research), Tsytshrift 2-3 (1928); Shmuel Niger, “Zhurnalistishe element in spektors verk” (Journalistic elements in Spektor’s work), in Yidishe literatur (Kiev, 1928); Niger, “Di oytobiografye fun m. spektor” (The autobiography of M. Spektor), Di tsukunft (June 1930; September 1938); Dertseyler un romanistn (Story-tellers and novelists) (New York, 1946), pp. 111-29; Niger, Bleter geshikhte fun der yidisher literatur (Pages of history from Yiddish literature) (New York, 1959), pp. 382-403; M. Shalit, Lukhes in undzer literatur (Calendars in our literature) (Vilna: Alt-nay, 1929), p. 38; Dr. Yankev Shatski, in Pinkes (New York) 2 (1929), pp. 93-94; Shatski, in Yivo-bleter (New York) 28.1 (1946), pp. 72-73; Shatski, Geshikhte fun yidn in varshe (History of Jews in Warsaw), vol. 3 (New York: YIVO, 1953); Tsvi Hirshkan, in Di tsukunft (February 1929); Hirshkan, Unter eyn dakh (Under one roof) (Warsaw: Bzhoza, 1931), pp. 39-40; Sh. Dubnov, Fun “zhargon” biz yidish (From “jargon” to Yiddish) (Vilna: B. Kletskin, 1929), pp.17-23; Dubnov, in Tog (New York) (January 21, 1933); Y. D. Berkovitsh, in Forverts (New York) (April 19, 1931; February 7, 1932; March, 6, 1932; March 27, 1932; May 15, 1932; June 19, 1932; June 16, 1932; August 7, 1932; August 14, 1932; September 4, 1932; October 2, 1932; November 27, 1932); Y. Riminik, in Tsaytshrift 5 (1931); N. Mayzil, Perets (Perets), vol. 1 (Vilna, 1931), pp. 117ff; Mayzil, Doyres un tkufes in der yidisher literatur, bletlekh tsu der geshikhte un tsu der kharakteristik fun der yidisher literatur (Generations and eras in Yiddish literature, on the history and the character of Yiddish literature) (New York, 1942), see index; Mayzil, Yitskhok-leybush perets un zayn dor shrayber (Yitskhok-Leybush Perets and his generation of writers) (New York, 1951), see index; Mayzil, Tsurikblikn un perspektivn (Retrospectives and perspectives) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1962), see index; B. Ts. Kats, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (January 21, 1932); Sh. Ginzburg, in Forverts (July 12, 1932); Dovid Pinski, in Yorbukh fun semeteri-department fun arbeter-ring (Annual of the Cemetery Department of the Workmen’s Circle) (New York, 1934); Pinski, in Di tsukunft (1945); E. Almi, in Yubiley-oysgabe fun moment 1910-1935 (Jubilee publication of Moment, 1910-1935) (Warsaw); Almi, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (September 10, 1942); Almi, in Poylisher yidisher yorbukh (Polish Jewish yearbook) (New York, 1944); Almi, Momentn fun a lebn (Moments in a life) (Buenos Aires, 1948), pp. 114-20, 175-87; Elkhonen Tsaytlin, In a literarisher shtub (In a literary home) (Warsaw, 1937), pp. 149-60, 172, 190-91; Tsyatlin, “Briv fun paltiel zamoshtshin tsu m. spektor” (Letter from Paltiel Zamoshtshin to M. Spektor), Yivo-bleter (New York) 29 (1947); A. A. Roback, The Story of Yiddish Literature (New York, 1940, pp. 163-64; Mendele un zayn dor (Mendele and his generation) (Moscow, 1940), pp. 23, 50; R. Granovski, Yitskhok-yoyel linetski un zayn dor (Yitskhok-Yoyel Linetski and his generation) (New York, 1941), pp. 119-20; Y. A. Rontsh, Amerike in der yidisher literatur (America in Yiddish literature) (New York, 1945); Moyshe Shtarkman, in Hadoar (New York) (May 23, 1947); R. Faygenboym, in Di goldene keyt (Tel Aviv) 4 (1949), pp. 172-79; Dr. A. Mukdoni, Yitskhok leybush perets un dos yidishe teater (Yitskhok Leybush Perets and Yiddish theater) (New York: IKUF, 1949), pp. 138, 145, 146; Mukdoni, In varshe un in lodzh (In Warsaw and in Lodz), vol. 1 (Buenos Aires, 1955), p. 24; Kh. Lif, Hasefer haivri (Hebrew volume) (1948); Sh. Noble, in Jewish Book Annual (New York, 1948/1949); “Finf briv tsu d. pinski fun m. spektor” (Five letters from D. Pinski to M. Spektor), Yivo-bleter 36 (1952), pp. 253-58; Y. Ragav, in Entsiklopediya shel galiyut (Encyclopedia of the Diaspora), vol. 1 (Jerusalem, 1953), p. 500; M. Turkov, Di letste fun a groysn dor (The last of a great generation) (Buenos Aires, 1954), see index; Zikhronot hamotsi laor shelomo shreberk (Memoirs of a publisher, Shelomo Shreberk) (Tel Aviv: Sh. Shreberk, 1954), 232 pp.; Pinkes varshe (Buenos Aires) 1 (1955), pp. 494-95; Sh. Slutski, Avrom reyzen-biblyografye (Avrom Reyzen’s bibliography) (New York, 1956), nos. 4508, 4583, 4633, 4650, 5273; Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index; M. Unger, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (October 8, 1961); M. Shveyd, in Forverts (July 15, 1962); A. Zak, In onheyb friling (In the beginning of spring) (Buenos Aires, 1962), pp. 74ff; Zak, in Di yidishe tsaytung (Buenos Aires) (May 12, 1963); Sh. Rozhanski, foreword to Der yudisher muzhik (Buenos Aires, 1953); Yefim Yeshurin, Mortkhe spektor-biblyografye (Mortkhe Spektor bibliography) (New York, 1963), 8 pp., including a bibliography of Spektor’s writings, contributions to Spektor-bukh of 1929, works on Spektor in books, readers, and textbooks, and works about Spektor in biographical dictionaries and encyclopedias; facsimile copies of Spektor’s letters to Ruvn Brainin, in Keneder odler (October 11, 1964).

Yankev Birnboym