SHMUEL PESKIN

SHMUEL PESKIN (1871-May 22, 1939)

            The brother of Yankev Peskin, he was born in Vilna.  He attended religious elementary school and later senior high school, before going to study engineering in Belgium.  He participated in organizing the first mass labor organizations in Russia.  In 1891 he immigrated to the United States, and there he graduate from medical school and worked as a practicing doctor.  He assumed a prominent place in the socialist movement.  He was one of the founders of the workers’ education school.  In 1902 he helped in the creation of Jewish cooperatives and led a division of the New York-based Forverts (Forward) concerning the cooperative movement throughout the world.  In 1905 he was named by the Forverts to be editor of Tsayt-gayst (Spirit of the times), a weekly newspaper published by Forverts.  In his older years he later directed for Forverts a section concerning answers to questions about medicine.  He also contributed to Tsukunft (Future) in New York.  In book form: Wilhelm Bracke, Nider mit di sotsyalistn (Down with the socialists), translated from German (New York, 1896), 28 pp.; James MacDonald, Vos viln di sotsyalistn (What do the socialists want?), translation (New York, n.d.), 30 pp.; Strayks un zeyer nitslekhkeyt far di arbeter (Strikes and their usefulness for workers) (New York: International Library, 1910), 41 pp.  He died in New York.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2; Ab. Cahan, Bleter fun mayn leyn (Pages from my life), vol. 4 (Vilna, 1928), pp. 467-68; Cahan, in Forverts (New York) (May 27, 1939); Moyshe Shtarkman, in Yivo-bleter (Vilna) 4 (1932), pp. 354-85; Elye (Elias) Shulman, Geshikhte fun der yidisher literatur in amerike (History of Yiddish literature in America) (New York, 1943), pp. 64-67; Y. Sh. Herts, Di yidishe sotsyalistishe bavegung in amerike, 70 yor sotsyalistishe tetikeyt, 30 yor yidishe sotsyalistishe farband (The Jewish socialist movement in America, seventy years of socialist activity, thirty years of the Jewish Socialist Union) (New York, 1954), see index; Arbeter-ring boyer un tuer (Builders and leaders of the Workmen’s Circle), ed. Y. Yeshurin and Y. Sh. Herts (New York, 1962), p. 301; D. Shub, in Forverts (May 10, 1954).

Leyb Vaserman