DOVID FLAKSER

DOVID FLAKSER (b. August 21, 1902)

            He was born in Demblin (Dęblin), Poland.  He received both a Jewish and a general education.  In 1920 he came to the United States, graduated from the Jewish teachers’ seminary, and went on to become a teacher in secular Jewish schools in New York, Detroit, Winnipeg, and Chicago.  From 1925 he published literary essays and journalistic articles in: Frayhayt (Freedom), Yung-kuznye (Young smithy), Yugnt (Youth), Yugnt-zhurnal (Youth journal), Proletarisher gedank (Proletarian idea), Unzer veg (Our way), Shul un lerer (School and teacher), Heym un dertsiung (Home and education), Proletarishe dertsiung (Proletarian education), and Israel Horizons (also its co-editor), all in New York; Dos idishe vort (The Jewish word) in Winnipeg; and Af der vakh (On guard), Yisroel-shtime (Voice of Israel), and Al hamishmar (On guard) in Tel Aviv.  He served as co-editor of the periodical Yedies (Information) in Detroit-Chicago (1928-1929).  In 1964 he contributed a long essay, entitled “Yidish lebn in amerike” (Jewish life in America), to Bitefutsot hagola (In the diaspora) (Tel Aviv).  In book form: Proletarishe kultur untern prozhektor fun marksizm, esey (Proletarian culture under the light of Marxism, essay) (New York, 1927), 61 pp. (he later renounced the conclusions drawn here); Ideishe shleymesn un halbe emesn (Ideological completion and half-truths) (Tel Aviv, 1960), 210 pp., with a preface by Dr. Y. Ustri-Dan (also in a Hebrew edition under the title, Haidea vehaemet, masa [Idea and truth, essay]) (Tel Aviv, 1961).  He was last living in New York.

Sources: L. Talmi, in Hamer (New York) (May 1927); H. Shmulevitsh, in Yidishe shriftn (Warsaw) (July-August 1960); G. Moked, in Davar (Tel Aviv) (June 7, 1961).

Khayim Leyb Fuks