Chmelnitzki, Melech
CHMELNITZKI, MELECH
CHMELNITZKI, MELECH (1885–1946), Yiddish poet and medical popularizer. Born near Kiev, he spent his boyhood in Galicia and studied medicine in Vienna, where he practiced as a doctor. In 1939 he immigrated to New York. From 1919 he wrote articles mainly on medical themes for the New York Forverts, which were reprinted in the world Yiddish press and won him great popularity. He was also a Yiddish poet of distinction, publishing three volumes of lyrics that linked him to the early 20th-century impressionistic school. He was one of the first translators of Yiddish poetry into Polish.
bibliography:
Rejzen, Leksikon, 2 (1927), 44–46; lnyl, 4 (1961), 397–9; Neugroeschel, in: Fun Noentn Over (1955), 292–8; J. Leftwich, The Golden Peacock (1961). Add. Bibliography S. Liptzin, A History of Yiddish Literature (1972), 241.
[Melech Ravitch]