PINKHES A. SIRKIN

PINKHES A. SIRKIN (b. 1907)

            He was born in Zgierzh (Zgierz), near Lodz, Poland.  He was the son of the Agudat Yisrael deputy in the Polish parliament, Eliezer Sirkin.  He studied in religious elementary school and yeshivas and with private tutors.  From his youth he was active in the Orthodox youth movement and one of its first leaders who defended pioneering in the land of Israel.  In 1933 he settled in Israel.  He founded Hassidic agricultural colonies.  His first poems were published in the anthology Unzer traybkraft (Our motor force) (Lodz, 1926), and from that time on he contributed to: Der flaker (The flare), Der yudisher arbayter (The Jewish worker), Beys-yankev zhurnal (Beys-Yankev journal), and Unzer lebn (Our life) of which he was also editor—all in Lodz; Der yud (The Jew), Dos yudishe togblat (The Jewish daily newspaper), Ortodoksishe yugnt-bleter (Orthodox youth pages), Darkhenu (Our way), and Deglanu (Our banner), among others, in Warsaw; Dos vort (The word) in Vilna; and Hamodia (The herald) and Shaarim (Gates) in Israel; among others.  In book form (listed under P. A. Sirski): Gilgulim, khasidishe drame in dray aktn (Metamorphoses, a Hassidic drama in three acts) (Pietrkov, 1929), 144 pp.  He was last living in Jerusalem, an official in the Knesset.

Sources: Khayim Leyb Fuks, in Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) (March 15, 1929); Fuks, in Nayer folksblat (Lodz) (Maych 12, 1930); Fuks, in Fun noentn over (New York) 3 (1957), see index; information from Y. Fridenzon in New York.

Khayim Leyb Fuks