MENDL
ELKIN (April 9, 1874-April 22, 1962)
He was born in the village of Brozhe
(Brozhka), near Bobruisk, Byelorussia, into a family of poor Jewish
farmers. They were driven from the
village in 1891 and settled in Bobruisk.
There were ten children in the home, and Mendl was the second
oldest. Both parents toiled to support
the family: the father ran (and himself drove) a grain mill and the mother was
a peddler through the neighboring villages.
Although the poverty of his home did not cease, they nonetheless hired a
teacher for the children. At age eleven
Mendl left for Bobruisk, where he studied with Froym-Itshe, the head of the
yeshiva (at the “great table”), and there he “ate days” [boarded with different
families on different days of the week].
Later he sought work, left for a distant relative of his father, Zalmen
Elkin, who directed a large timber business in Oryol (Orel) Province (central
Russia), and Zalmen Elkin gave him a position close by. At the same time, he was studying as an
external student, and six or seven years later he graduated from dental school
in Kharkov. He practiced as a dentist no
more than six years; his ambition was solely the theater, literature,
art—mainly, theater. In Bobruisk he
performed with an amateur troupe—in both Russian and Yiddish. For a time he appeared on stage with the
famous Russian actress [Glikeriya] Fedotova.
His home in Bobruisk was a regular address for Yiddish actors and
Yiddish writers—they would all come to Elkin’s home as if it was always open
and could stay there as long as they wished.
Elkin became at this time intimate friends with A. Vayter and Perets
Hirshbeyn. He became their patron, and
his theater plans became bound up with them.
His close friendship with Hirshbeyn continued later in the United States
until the end of Hirshbeyn’s life.
Beginning in 1900 Elkin had opportunities to publish in the Russian
press in Bobruisk and Minsk, as well as in the Russian publications: Novosti (News), Rech’ (Speech), Rodina
(Homeland), and Teatr i iskusstvo
(Theater and art). While still working
as a dentist, he published articles in the Russian-language Zubovrachebnyi Vestnik (Dental
bulletin). For about a year he served as
editor of the Russian socialist newspaper Severo-zapadnii krai
(Northwestern rim)—Governor Erdeli arrested the entire editorial board at the
time, but Elkin at the last minute managed to flee. He was at the point in time active in the
Bobruisk organization of the Bund and was close friends with the leader of the
organization, Noyekhke Yukhvid, the “police chief” in 1905. In 1912 he and A. Kirzhnits published several
issues of Bobroysker vokhenblat
(Bobruisk weekly newspaper). That same
year he founded in Minsk the “Menakhem” publishing house which brought out two
works of his good friend Perets Hirshbeyn: Mayn
bukh (My book) and Di puste kretshme
(The haunted inn). During WWI (1915-1916),
he was living in Siberia, near the Sayan Mountains, while his family was living
in Petrograd. He was directing a timber
franchise and at the same time amassing materials for a monograph on the
converts in Minusinsk. (Along various
ways and byways, Elkin reached his friend A. Vayter who was languishing in his
time of exile in the Turukhansky district of Siberia.) After the 1917 Revolution, Elkin returned to
his family in Petrograd, together with Vayter established the Yiddish chamber
theater, and attracted the director Aleksandr Granovski who later became the
artistic manager of the theater. In the
first years of the Soviet regime, Elkin became manager of the art division in
the Commissariat of Education in the Byelorussian Soviet Republic and held the
post until September 1919. When the
Poles captured Bobruisk, he fled to Vilna and organized a theater society
there. In 1920 he moved to Warsaw where,
together with the Vilna Troupe, staged Sholem Asch’s Amnon un tamar (Amnon and Tamar) and Der zindiker (The sinner). In September 1921 Elkin was selected to be
chairman of the Jewish artists’ association.
He published at this time literary works in various journals and was
co-editor of Yidish teater (Yiddish
theater), volumes 4-5 (Warsaw, 1922). In
1923 Perets Hirshbeyn brought him to America.
In New York he became one of the founders of the Yiddish theater society
in late April 1923. He was a teacher in
the drama studio and together with Dr. A. Mukdoni edited its monthly Teolit (Theater and literature). He was later co-organizer—with Perets
Hirshbeyn, Dovid Pinski, H. Leivick, and the artist Khayim Shneur—of “Unzer
teater” (Our theater). The theater did
not last long and closed down after the winter season (1924-1925). Among his performances was An-sky’s Tog un nakht (Day and night) in his
adaptation—Elkin wrote the second act to the play, dubbed “Samoels memshole”
(Sammael’s dominion), a dramatic satire in blank verse, and published it in Shriftn (Writings), vol. 8. Elkin went on to create a children’s theater
which also did not last long. His
articles concerning theatrical issues and performances were scattered through
various and sundry collections, newspapers, and magazines. In Moyshe Shalit’s journal Lebn (Life), he published a monograph on
the Minusinsk converts (issues 5-6); in Vilna’s Tog (Day), he published, among other items, a poem in issue 1000 of
the newspaper; in Di tsukunft (The
future) in New York, he published his poem “Der shaman” (The shaman) in August
1923; in Der amerikaner (The
American) in New York, he placed the monographs, “Di vilde shvotim in
soito-mongoler gegnt” (The wild tribes of the ?-Mongolian region) and “Sibirer
yidn” (Siberian Jews); important work may also be found in Forverts (Forward), Di feder
(The pen), Teater un kunst (Theater
and art), and Unzer bukh (Our
book)—in New York—and in Chicago’s Kultur
(Culture), among other serials. He
published or helped publish writings by other Yiddish writers. He edited literary and theatrical
collections, in which his name is not even mentioned. He was among the founders of the “Central
Yiddish Library and Archive” (1936), and he was secretary of its association in
1940. When the YIVO center was moved
from Vilna to New York, the “Central Library” joined YIVO, and Elkin was its
librarian until the end of his life. Of
his writings, translations in book form include: N. Szkliar, Bum un dreydl, a maysele (Boom and
dreidel, a story) (Vilna: B. A. Kletskin, 1921), 31 pp.; George Bernard Shaw, Kandida, misterye in dray aktn (Candida,
a mystery in three acts) (Vilna: B. A. Kletskin, 1923), 89 pp.; Max Nordau, Doktor kon (Dr. Kuhn) (Vilna: B. A.
Kletskin, 1921). Original plays include:
Motl tremp, a kinder-shpil in eyn akt
(Motl the tramp, a children’s play on one act) (New York: Workmen’s Circle,
Education Department, 1928), 28 pp.; Der
gliklekhe prints, a kinder-shpil in eyn akt loyt oskar vayld (The happy
prince, a children’s play in one act, following Oscar Wilde) (New York:
Workmen’s Circle, Education Department, 1929), 31 pp.; Di laydn fun edipus, troyer-shpil in eyn akt, af der teme fun sofokles
(The sufferings of Oedipus, a mournful play in one act, on the theme of
Sophocles) (New York: Bodn, 1935), 35 pp.
His original prose writings include: Koybaler
stepes (Koibal steppes) (Vilna: B. Kletskin, 1934), 182 pp.; Far fremde zind, roman (For strange
sins, a novel) (Vilna-New York: Menakhem, 1944), 223 pp.; Teater-shpil, far kleyn un groys (Theatrical play, for young and
old), music edited by M. Gelbart (New York: Workmen’s Circle, Education
Department, 1949), 232 pp., which includes Bum
un dreydl, Konrads kholem
(Conrad’s dream), Motl tremp, A din-toyre mitn vint (A rabbinical
court in the wind), In podryad (In
the matzo factory), Di laydn fun edipus,
and Dos gute shvelbele (The good
swallow); Tsvey shtromen, eyn tsil, af di
vegn tsu geule, skitse (Two streams, one goal, on the road to redemption, a
sketch) (New York: Jewish National Fund, 1930s), 11 pp. He also translated into Russian Perets
Hirshbeyn’s “Baym breg” (At the shore) and other works. On his sixtieth birthday, there was published
in New York: Mendl elkin yubiley-bukh
(Mendl Elkin jubilee volume) with articles and memoirs by Avrom Reyzen, Shmuel
Niger, Dovid Pinski, Dr. Y. Shatski, A. Leyeles, Dr. A. Mukdoni, and Perets
Hirshbeyn, and with poems by H. Leivick and A. Oyerbakh, among others. Another commemorative album on his seventieth
birthday was published in 1944 in New York (16 pp.). He died and was buried in New York. In his bequest which is preserved in the YIVO
archives in New York, there is a long manuscript entitled “Zikhroynes”
(Memoirs); in 1962 the publisher “Dos poylishe yidntum” (Polish Jewry) in
Buenos Aires, Argentina, announced that this work was being prepared for
publication, the 164th volume for the book series brought out by the
publisher.
“A talented nature to a high
degree,” wrote Dovid Pinski, “an extraordinary speaker and orator, first name
in amateur spectacles, a director with great imagination and expertise, a very
fine translator, a sculptor, a builder, a painter, a designer—a craftsman! A wonderful personality. Someone born to do things.”
“What is a lamed-vovnik?” asked Meylekh
Ravitsh. “A lamed-vovnik [one of the
thirty-six hidden sages of Jewish folklore] is an imagination that allows
itself to conform to every reality. To
every reality that exists and we do not know precisely in whose merit…. So we think of someone worthy and call him a
lamed-vovnik…. Similarly, Yiddish
literature, and modern culture in Yiddish generally, is an existential entity,
a reality without an absolutely justified imperative. It also exists by virtue of the lamed-vov
sages. I know a few of them. I know one with complete certainty. His name is Mendl Elkin, I know him from
Poland and from America.”
“Mendl Elkin,” noted Arn Glants,
“—may his memory be revered and blessed!—was a piece of all of our lives. A piece of the Jewish community’s political,
artistic, literary, cultural, and scientific life on two continents and over
the course of three-quarters of a century.
He died at the threshold of his ninetieth birthday, and he began his
community work very early, like many of his great, many-sided, creative
generation. Men will write entire books
about every phase of his rich life.
There is no single important name, I believe, among Yiddish movements,
in Yiddish literature, in the Yiddish theater, in Yiddish music, in Yiddish
cultural affairs whom he did not personally know and with whom he did not have
an active relationship.”
“You’ll encounter him,” wrote Yankev
Glatshteyn, “rushing by on the streets of New York. Those of us who are younger wouldn’t
recognize after he’s flown by. He recounts,
as he’s rushing, a batch of troubles that he’s having with his work, with such
optimism that perhaps you’ll want to help or console him, and at the same time
you’ll sense that he has recounted this for no particular reason, out of
arrogance, to know how much pleasure one can derive from Jewish troubles, when
one always accomplishes something….
Mendl is an aesthete, not an amateur but actually a man of great
distinction. He loves to write, and he
is a great connoisseur. He evaluates
art, music, [and] theater…. Of all his
talents, his talent at being a good friend is huge. He is an anthology of friendship. He is, however, a just anthologist…. For his friends with whom he has lived for a large
part of life, he is prepared to sacrifice.”
Elkin (second from
left) with members of the Warsaw literary crowd (1922)
Sources:
Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2; Zalmen
Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish
theater), vol. 2 (New York, 1934), with a bibliography; Sh. Gorelik, “A. vayters
briv” (A. Vayter’s letters), Di tsayt
(New York) (December 25, 1921; January 1, 1922); M. Vaykhert, Teater
un drame (Theater and
drama), vol. 1 (Warsaw, 1922), pp. 87-94; Vaykhert, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (May 14, 1933); Vaykhert, Zikhroynes, band 2: varshe, 1918-1939
(Memoirs, vol. 2: Warsaw, 1918-1939) (Tel Aviv: Menora, 1961), see index; H.
Petrikovski (Novak), in Tog (New
York) (February 7, 1931); B. Ts. Goldberg, in Tog (March 14, 1935); Goldberg, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (March 17, 1959; April 14, 1962); Dr.
A. Mukdoni, in Morgn-zhurnal (April
3, 1935); Mukdoni, In
varshe un in lodzh (In Warsaw and in Lodz), vol. 1 (Buenos Aires,
1955), see index; N. Y. Gotlib, in Keneder
odler (Montreal) (May 8, 1944); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Tog (April 25, 1954); Sh. Slutski, Avrom reyzen-biblyografye (Avrom Reyzen’s bibliography) (New York,
1956), no. 5041; Sh. Izban, in Der
amerikaner (New York) (August 23, 1957); Dovid Pinski, in Dos idishe velt (Winnipeg) (November 13,
1959); F. Zolf, in Keneder odler
(February 4, 1960); Y. Botoshanski, in Di
prese (Buenos Aires) (April 26, 1962); M. Shveyd, in Forverts (New York) (April 27, 1962); Gershon Svet, in Hadoar (New York) (Iyar 11 [= May 15], 1962);
Meylekh Ravitsh, in Keneder odler
(May 3, 1962); Y. A Tshernyak, in Di
prese (May 3, 1962); Tshernyak, in Dos
yidishe vort (Buenos Aires) (May 4, 1962); R. Yuklson, in Frayhayt (New York) (May 11, 1962); A.
Golomb, in Der veg (Mexico City) (May
19, 1962); Yedies fun yivo (New York)
83 (July 1962); H. Fenster, in Unzer
shtime (Paris) (June 7-9, 1962); L. Sh. (Levin-Shatskes), in Der veker (New York) (August 1, 1962); Arbeter-ring boyer un tuer (Builders and
leaders of the Workmen’s Circle), ed. Y. Yeshurin and Y. Sh. Herts (New York,
1962); Dr. Shloyme Bikl, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal
(December 21, 1962); Moyshe Shtarkman, in Jewish
Book Annual (New York) (5706 [= 1945/1946]).
Yankev Birnboym
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