MENAKHEM (-MENDL) EKSHTEYN

MENAKHEM (-MENDL) EKSHTEYN (b. 1885)

            He was born in Reyshe (Rzeszów) and lived until the Nazi occupation in Cracow, Galicia.  He studied with the religious writer Rabbi Yikusiel Arye Kalhar.  He completed his doctoral degree in philology and philosophy from Cracow University.  Until WWII he was a teacher at the Agudah’s women’s seminary.  He wrote in both Yiddish and in Hebrew.  From 1926 he was publishing articles on Orthodox education and on Hassidism in light of modern research in: Der idisher veg (The Jewish way) of which he was also co-editor, in Cracow (1926); Dos yudishe togblat (The Jewish daily newspaper), Deglanu (Our banner), and Darkenu (Our path) in Warsaw; and Dos vort in Vilna—among other items, he published here portion of his work, “Vegn tsu der eygener velt” (Paths to one’s own world).  Over the years 1937-1939, he published serially in Beys-yankev zhurnal (Beys-Yankev journal) in Lodz his essay “Psikhologishe elementn in khsides” (Psychological elements in Hassidism)—the announcements indicate that it should have appeared through 1939.  He was killed in the years of the Nazi occupation and rule.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), see index; Beys-yankev zhurnal (Lodz) 1-2 (1937); information from Yoysef Fridenzon in New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks