ELKHONEN NATAL

ELKHONEN NATAL (b. 1897)

            He was born in Konin, Kalish (Kalisz) district, Poland, into a poor family.  He studied in religious elementary school and in a Russian-Polish public school, later becoming a tailor.  After WWI he was living in Poyzn (Poznań), and in 1920 he moved to Lodz.  He was active in the leftist Jewish trade union movement.  He was cofounder of the cultural club “Światło” (Light).  He debuted in print with a poetry cycle entitled “Plakatn” (Posters) in the journal Vegn (Wars) in Lodz (1922), later publishing his futuristic poem “Shtot-gedrang” (Urban throng).  He contributed to the publications of the “Yung-yiddish” (Youth Yiddish) literary group in Lodz, such as: Shveln (Thresholds), S’feld (The field), Oyfgang (Arise), and Oyfkum (Arise), among others, as well as in Lodz, Folksblat (People’s newspaper) and Literarishe tribune (Literary tribune), and other leftist publications in Poland.  In 1935 he was arrested by the Polish authorities and only freed after spending four months in the Wronki Prison, after which he departed for the Soviet Union.  He lived for a time in Minsk, and during the Moscow show trials of 1936-1937 he was arrested.  Since then there has been no information about him.

Source: Khayim Leyb Fuks, in Fun noentn over (New York) 3 (1957), p. 234.

Khayim Leyb Fuks