YEKHIEL-MIKHL KENIG

YEKHIEL-MIKHL KENIG (b. August 8, 1906)

            He was born in Lodz.  He attended religious elementary school.  He passed the sixth level of courses in high school as an external student.  He was a member of the central committee of Poale Agudat Yisrael (Workers of Agudat Yisrael) and of the administration of the Lodz Jewish community council.  From 1923 he contributed to all Polish Orthodox publication: Ortodoksishe bletlekh (Orthodox sheets), Yudishe shtime (Jewish voice) (1920-1925), Mesoyre-bleter (Pages from tradition) of which he was editor, and Der yudisher arbayter (The Jewish worker) (1924)—in Lodz; Der yud (The Jew), Di yudishe arbayter-shtime (The voice of Jewish labor), Beys yankev (Beys Yankev), and Der kindergortn (The kindergarten)—in Warsaw, and he was editor of the latter two of these.  He wrote articles, sketches, stories, and poetry.  He also translated and adapted from German-Jewish literature, such as: Dr. Lehman’s stories (in Der yud 1924/1925 and 1926/1927); Jacob Israël de Haan, Yerusholaim (Jerusalem) (Lodz: Mesoyre, 1925), 112 pp.;[1] Samson Rafael Hirsh, Gezamelte shriftn (Collected works) (Lodz: Mesoyre, 1926), 56 pp.  A number of his translations remain in manuscript.  In addition to translations, he published: Unzer yidish (Our Yiddish), a textbook, part 1 (Lodz: Mesoyre, 1932), 132 pp., using the pen name Sh. Lazarson.  Other pen names include: M. Ben-Dovid, K. Nemirover, M. Reks, Tsezar, and A. Mik.

Kenig’s brother SHLOYME KENIG (1901-1967) was editor of the journal Friling (Spring).  He wrote as well for Deglanu (Our banner), among other serials.  He died in Israel.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Khayim Leyb Fuks, Lodzh shel mayle, dos yidishe gaystiḳe un derhoybene lodzh, 100 yor yidishe un oykh hebreishe literatur un kultur in lodzh un in di arumiḳe shtet un shtetlekh (Lodz on high, the Jewish spiritual and elevated Lodz, 100 years of Yiddish and also Hebrew literature and culture in Lodz and in the surrounding cities and towns) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1972), p. 139.

Berl Cohen

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[1] Translator’s note.  The original here is actually Dutch, though Kenig apparently translated into Yiddish from a German translation of the original. (JAF)