MOYSHE-YEHUDE HELMAN

MOYSHE-YEHUDE HELMAN (April 27, 1873-December 11, 1957)

            He was born in Lodz, into a wealthy family.  He studied in religious elementary school, yeshivas, and with the rabbi of Lodz.  He later became a manufacturer and a home owner.  He was chairman of Mizrachi in Lodz, a councilor from the Zionist faction on the Lodz city council, and a deputy in the second Polish Sejm on the list of national minorities.  In 1932 he made aliya to Israel.  He debuted in print in Hebrew and from 1912 wrote in Yiddish.  He contributed to: Nayer lodzer morgnblat (New Lodz morning newspaper); Lodzer tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper), 1918-1932, in which he published articles and fictional items, among them a series “Arabishe mayselekh” (Arabian stories); Literatur (Literature) in Lodz, 1918; Der yudisher zhurnalist (The Jewish journalist) in Lodz, 1919; Der mizrakhi-veg (The Mizrachi way); Dos naye vort (The new word) in Warsaw, 1922; and also in the Hebrew weeklies, Hamizraḥi (The Mizrachi) and Menora (Menorah)—both in Warsaw.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: E. R. Malachi, Igrot david freshman (The letters of David Frishman) (New York, 1927), pp. 162-65; D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 4 (Tel Aviv, 1950), pp. 1690-1700; Dr. A. Mukdoni, In varshe un in lodzh (In Warsaw and in Lodz), vol. 1 (Buenos Aires, 1955), see index; Kh. L. Fuks, in Fun noentn over (New York) 3 (1957).