MENDL FAYNTSAYG

MENDL FAYNTSAYG (b. May 15, 1885)

            He was born in Nur, Lomzhe district, Poland.  He studied in yeshivas and attended to secular subjects on his own.  In 1903 he came to Warsaw, and from there he left for Odessa, and became a traveling salesman, traveling all through the length and breadth of Russia.  In 1913 he moved to the United States.  He initially suffered terribly, worked as a porter, later studied to be a pharmacist at New York University and opened his own drugstore.  From 1913 he published poetry, sketches, stories, children’s tales, street images in verse, children’s poetry and the like in: Tog (Day), Tsukunft (Future), Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor), Kundes (Prankster), Frayhayt (Freedom), and Kinder zhurnal (Children’s magazine), among others, in New York; Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal; and Kalifornyer idishe shtime (Jewish voice of California) in Los Angeles; among others.  His long story, “Ven geter vaynen” (When gods cry), appeared in Tsukunft 6-9 (1928); it dealt with the theme of mixed marriage in America.  During WWII he settled in California.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; “Kalmen Marmor archive,” in YIVO New York).

Khayim Leyb Fuks