MESHULEM SURKIN

MESHULEM SURKIN (December 21, 1899-April 26, 1976)

            He was born in Behomet, Bukovina.  He was a journalist and theater enthusiast.  He studied in religious elementary school and yeshiva.  As a youth he moved to Czernowitz.  From 1920 he performed in drama circles and directed.  During WWII he lived in Tashkent.  In 1945 he returned to Czernowitz, and in 1972 he made aliya to Israel.  In the 1930s he began writing theater reviews and polemical articles in: Tshernovitser bleter (Czernowitz pages), Vilner tog (Vilna day), Di frayhayt (Freedom), Folks-shtime (Voice of the people) in Warsaw, Naye prese (New press) in Paris, Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture) in New York, Yisroel shtime (Voice of Israel), and Folksblat (People’s news) in Tel Aviv, among others.  In his memory was published the anthology Mesholem surkin, (Meshulem Surkin), edited by Y. Rudnitski (Tel Aviv, 1978).  He died in Bnei-Brak, Israel.

Ruvn Goldberg

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 402.