ELIYAHU-MOSHE GENIKHOVSKY

ELIYAHU-MOSHE GENIKHOVSKY (June 25, 1903-July 19, 1971)

            He was born in Grayeve (Grajewo), near Lomzhe, Poland.  He studied in religious primary schools and yeshivas.  He later settled in Warsaw and was a cofounder there of “Haḥaluts hamizraḥi” (The Mizrachi pioneer).  In 1926 he moved and settled in Antwerp where he was selected to serve as vice-president of the Zionist Federation.  He was the founder of Antwerp’s “Tseire mizraḥi” (Mizrachi youth) and helped to found the same organization in other Western European countries.  From 1933 he was living in Israel where he assumed a leading position in all Mizrachi and in a few other organizations.  He was a cofounder of “Mosad harav kuk” (Rabbi Kook Foundation), a delegate to Zionist congresses, honorary secretary of the B’nai Brith Lodge in Jerusalem, a member of its finance committee, a member of the Jerusalem community administration, and a member of Knesset.  He also initiated the diamond industry in Israel.  He began writing articles in the Yiddish publications of Mizrachi in Poland: Undzer shtime (Our voice) in Warsaw (issue no. 1 appeared December 1, 1926, edited by Nayfeld, Dr. Sh. Feldbush, and Y. Grinberg), and Dos yudishe lebn (Jewish life) in Warsaw (issue no. 1 appeared March 26, 1925), Mizrachi weekly.  He authored a volume in Hebrew entitled Ki tavo al haarets (When you shall come to the land) (Jerusalem, 1936), 196 pp., which he translated into Yiddish and published in the Yiddish Mizrachi publications in the United States; and a pamphlet entitled Tora vearets (Torah and land) (Jerusalem, 1937), 32 pp.  He cofounded the Hebrew daily newspaper Hatsfira (The siren).  He also published a book about R. Mordechai Elyashberg: Harav mordekhai elyashberg: toldotav, mahashevotav vehelekh ruho (R. Mordechai Elyashberg: His history, his thought, and his temperament) (Jerusalem, 1937), 109 pp.  He edited the collected works of R. Yitsḥak Nisnboym (Nissenbaum) and penned an introduction to it (Jerusalem, 1940).  He also contributed to Entsiklopediya letsiyonit (Zionist encyclopedia), edited by Moshe Klaynman.  He died in Bnei-Brak.

Sources: D. Tidhar, Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the founders and builders of Israel), vol. 1 (Tel Aviv, 1947), see index; Dov Sadan, Kaarat egozim o elef bediha ubediha, asufat humor beyisrael (A bowl of nuts or one thousand and one jokes, an anthology of humor in Israel) (Tel Aviv, 1953), see index; Who’s Who in Israel (Tel Aviv, 1952).