MEYER (MAX) FILIPS

MEYER (MAX) FILIPS (b. 1874)

            He was born in Belaya Tserkov (Bila Tserkva), Ukraine, to a father who was an old-time barber-surgeon.  In his youth he worked in a cigarette factory and sold newspapers.  In 1893 he came to the United States.  He worked in sweatshops, was active in the trade union movement, and contributed as a cofounder of the Workmen’s Circle.  He published translations from Émile Zola and others in: Dos abend blat (The evening newspaper), Forverts (Forward), Arbayter tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper), Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor), and Kepmeykers zhurnal (Capmakers’ journal).  In 1950, at seventy-six years of age, he began to paint.  He was last living in Media, Pennsylvania.

Source: Yankev Glatshteyn, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (December 22, 1961).

Benyomen Elis