MENDL GOLDMAN

MENDL GOLDMAN (b. 1891)

            He was born in Rymanów, Galicia.  He studied in religious primary school and in a yeshiva.  He published stories in: Sotsyal-demokrat (Social democrat), Folks-fraynd (Friend of the people), Lemberger tageblat (Lemberg daily newspaper), and in Yankev Pfefer’s Idishe vokhnblat (Jewish daily newspaper) in New York.  He used as a pseudonym: B. M. Ziskind.

Source: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1.

MENDL GOLDMAN

MENDL GOLDMAN (b. 1902)

            He was born in Bialystok, into a family of merchants and intellectuals.  He studied in religious elementary schools and in a secular high school.  He was later a teacher of general subject matter in the special Yiddish-Hebrew school named for Gnessin, and he gave private lessons in Latin.  Together with Sh. Rabidovitsh, Y. Ayzenberg, and A. Sarver, he founded “Habima haivrit” (The Hebrew stage) where he himself performed.  He contributed to Di yidishe kunst (The Jewish art), in which he published his first poetic works.  From 1920 he published poems in Dos naye lebn (The new life) in Bialystok, later in Undzer lebn (Our life) for which he also served on the editorial board from 1931.  He also published in Forverts (Forward) in New York, Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves) in Warsaw, Byalistoker shtime (Voice of Bialystok), Byalistoker almanakh (Bialystok almanac), and Eygns (Expressly), among other serials.  In 1928 he received the first prize for a poem, “Harts eyn, harts oys” (Heart together, heart apart), in Forverts.  He served on the editorial board of Byalistoker leksikon (Bialystok lexicon), published articles on political and literary topics, and translated and Judaized popular Polish tangos.  He was a co-founder—and for a time literary manager—of the intimate variety theater “Gilorina.”  He was a member of the managing committee of the Bialystok journalists’ syndicate and a member of “Zayks” (the association of actors and composers).  During WWII he escaped to Soviet vRussia.  Over the years 1945-1968 he lived in Tashkent.  His work was included in Tsum zig (Toward victory) (Moscow, 1944).  He published: Heymvey (Homesick), poetry (New York, 1968), 123 pp.  His pseudonyms: Menakhem Gan and A Gilgul.

Sources: Byalistoker leksikon (1935); Pinkes byalistok (Records of Bialystok), vol. 1, p. 416; preface to Heymvey (Homesick); Y. Glatshteyn, in Tog-morgn zhurnal (New York) (March 31, 1968).

Yankev Kohen

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 138.]

YISROEL GOLDMAN

YISROEL GOLDMAN (October 20, 1879-August 2, 1947)

            He was born in Kamenets-Podolsk (Kamianets-Podilskyi), Russia.  He studied in religious primary school and in a house of study (or small synagogue), and general subject matter with private tutors.  After his bar mitzvah, he studied ritual slaughter with an uncle, the ritual slaughterer of Zvenits.  At age fifteen he was prepared to sit for the examinations as an external student.  He supported himself giving lessons.  Over the years 1904-1909, he was a teacher in the Kamenets Talmud-Torah; 1909-1915, he was secretary of the Podolsk area committee of YIKO (Jewish Cultural Organization).  In 1916 he settled in Kiev, where he worked in community and Zionist institutions.  He was connected with ORT (Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades), 1917-1919, as a statistician.  He was arrested, 1922-1924, by the Soviets for “counter-revolutionary” activities.  In 1925 he made aliya to Israel.  He published his literary works in Russian-Jewish, Hebrew, and Yiddish newspapers, among them: Di velt (The world) in Vienna.  In book form, there appeared a collection of his writings, entitled Ideal un lebn (Ideal and life), prose and poetry (Vilna, 1904).  He died in Tel Aviv.

Source: D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the founders and builders of Israel), vol. 4 (Tel Aviv, 1950).

YANKEV GOLDMAN

YANKEV GOLDMAN (b. 1847)

            He was born in Minsk, Byelorussia.  For a time he was a member of the local Jewish community council.  He authored a religious work, entitled Tapuḥe zahav (Fruit of gold), part 1 (Minsk, 1887), 108 pp., in which he translated in a folkish Yiddish various sayings, legends, and expressions found in Tanakh, Talmud, and midrash, literally and figuratively.

Source: Hayom (St. Petersburg) (February 1, 1887).

YASHE (YOSL) GOLDMAN

YASHE (YOSL) GOLDMAN (1904-April 26, 1929)

            He was born in a town near Warsaw.  Because of the poverty suffered by his parents, at age thirteen he was already working in a metal shop in Warsaw, later as a porter in a furniture shop, and in his youth he was attracted to the revolutionary movement.  In 1924 he stole across the Russo-Polish border, settled in Minsk, and became a laborer in a publishing house there.  He began writing and rapidly advanced to the head of the literary group “Young Laborer.”  In 1925 he began publishing poems in Oktrabr (October), Shtern (Star), Yunger arbeter (Young laborer), and Yunger pyoner (Young pioneer), among others.  In 1927 he assumed a standing place on the editorial staff of Oktyabr.  Due to an incurable disease, he shot himself in Sebastopol, Crimea, whence he had come for treatment.  His work was included in Atake (Attack) (Minsk, 1934); Komyug, literarish-kinstlerisher zamlbukh ([Jewish] Communist Youth, literary-artistic anthology) (Moscow, 1938); Kep, lider zamlung (Heads, poetry collection) (Minsk, 1926); and Deklamator fun der sovetisher yidisher literatur (Declaimer of Soviet Yiddish literature) (Moscow, 1934).  In book form: Lider (Poems), with a foreword by Kh. Dunets and a full bibliographic listing of Goldman’s published works (Minsk, 1931), 174 pp.

Sources: D. Tsharni, in Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) (June 21, 1927); Oktyabr (Minsk) (May 4, 1929); “A vort fun redaktsye” (A word from the editorial staff), Royte velt (Kharkov) (July 1929); B. Orshanski, Di yidishe literatur in vaysrusland nokh der revolutsye (Yiddish literature in Byelorussia after the revolution) (Moscow, 1931), pp. 88-91; A. Abtshuk, Etyudn un materyaln (Studies and materials) (Kharkov, 1934), pp. 255-61.

Aleksander Pomerants

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 138.]

DOVID GOLDMAN

DOVID GOLDMAN (b. May 25, 1885)

            He was born in Kalarash (Cǎlǎrași), Bessarabia.  In 1889 he was brought to Argentina, where his father Arn was a ritual slaughterer and leader of the Orthodox community in the colony of Mozesville.  He wrote correspondence pieces on the life of Jewish immigrants for Hamelits (The advocate) and Hatsfira (The siren).  He contributed to various Jewish newspapers and to Yor-bukh fun yidishn yishev in argentine (Yearbook of the Jewish settlement in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1945-1946), 328 pp. (edited by Nekhemye Tsuker).  Among his books: Di yidn in argentine in der fargangenheyt un in der kegnvart in bild un in vort (Jews in Argentina past and present in image and word), 2 vols. (Buenos Aires, 1914), 202 pp.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Y. Botoshanski, Argentine (Argentina), a publication of Di prese (Buenos Aires, 1938), pp. 65-66, 68; Botoshanski, Mame yidish (Mother Yiddish) (Buenos Aires, 1949), pp. 165, 171, 183; Algemeyne entsiklopedye (General encyclopedia), “Yidn H” (New York, 1957), pp. 383-84; Sh. Rozhanski, Dos yidishe gedrukte vort in argentina (The published Yiddish word in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1941), see index; V. Bresler, “Biblyografishe reshime” (Bibliographic listing), in Antologye fun der yidisher literatur in argentine (Anthology of Yiddish literature in Argentina) (Buenos Aires, 1944), p. 922; P. Vald, Argentiner shriftn (Argentine writings) (Buenos Aires, 1955), p. 72.

AVROM GOLDMAN

AVROM GOLDMAN (1896-1952)

            He was born in Khelm (Chełm), Poland, into a merchant household.  He studied in religious primary school, later in a Russian state high school, and with private tutors.  With the outbreak of WWI, he settled in Pskov, where he was active in the cultural domain.  He also assisted in reorganizing the Pskov Jewish community onto democratic foundations.  He studied medicine in St. Petersburg University.  In 1917, at the time of the February Revolution, he was living in St. Petersburg, and he took an active part in community life.  In 1918 he settled in the Vilna region and began to work actively for secular Jewish schools and culture.  In 1919 with a commission from Yekopo (Yevreyskiy komitet pomoshchi zhertvam voyny—“Jewish Relief Committee for War Victims”), he founded a Jewish school in Podbrodz (Pabrade) and was (with Sh. Bastomski and M. Sher) an initiator of a Jewish secular school system.  He was elected in 1921 to the executive of the central “Jewish School Organization for the Vilna Region,” and he thus settled in Vilna and administered Jewish school work.  At the same time, he continued his medical education at Vilna University.  Until WWII, he practiced medicine as a doctor in Vilna.  He was the representative of the head doctor in the hospital “Mishmeret ḥolim” (Guardian of the sick), and he lectured at the sister school run by the Vilna “Toz” (Towarzystwo Ochrony Zdrowia—Society for the protection of health).  During the German occupation, Dr. Goldman manifested an enormous responsibility for his position in the Jewish ghetto hospital, where with utter devotion he helped the Jewish sick.  During the liquidation of the Vilna ghetto, he was deported to German camps, and there survived the war.  Until 1949 he lived in Germany, later in New York.  He published articles on community Jewish school issues and on medicine and popular hygiene in: Pinkes far der geshikhte fun vilne in di yorn fun milḥome un okupatsye (Records of the history from Vilna in the years of war and occupation) (Vilna, 1922); Vilner tog (Vilna day), and Folks gezunt (Popular health) in Vilna (1923-1940).  In book form: Algemeyne patologye (General pathology) (Vilna, 1934), 120 pp.  He died in New York.

Sources: Pinkes yekopo (Records of Yekopo) (Vilna, 1930); Sefer hashana lebibliografiya yehudit bepolaniya (Annual Jewish bibliography in Poland) (Warsaw, 1934); Yerusholayim delite in kamf un umkum (The Jerusalem of Lithuania in struggle and death) (Paris, 1948).