MARK, YUDEL

MARK, YUDEL (1897–1975), Yiddish educator, philologist, and author. Born in Palanga, Lithuania, Mark became active in Jewish politics while studying at Petrograd University (1915–18). In Libava (Liepaja), Latvia, he organized the local branch of the Yidishe *Folkspartei, later becoming the secretary-general of the Jewish National Council in Lithuania (1923), and secretary and vice president of the Folkspartei in the same country. From 1930 to 1934 he was the editor of the daily Folksblat. Mark was the founder (1920) and principal of the Yiddish Real-Gimnazye of Vilkomir (Ukmerge), the first of its kind in Lithuania, and between 1927 and 1930, taught Yiddish at various schools and seminaries. After settling in the U.S. in 1936, Mark continued his activity in the field of Yiddish education. He settled in Israel (Jerusalem) in 1970.

Mark's first literary publication appeared in the Kovno (Kaunas) daily Nayes (1921), and he subsequently contributed extensively to a wide range of Yiddish political, literary, and educational publications, such as Eynheytlekhe Folkshul (1922). In addition he edited various Yiddish periodicals, His books include a Yiddish school grammar, Shul-Gramatik (1922), various textbooks on Yiddish language teaching, Yiddish literature, Jewish history (Der Yidishe Poyps, c. 1947; Dovid ha-Reuveni un Shloyme Molkho, 1941), biography, as well as children's books in Yiddish. Among his translations into Yiddish are works of Thomas Mann and Erich Maria Remarque. He also edited various books, notably the Groyser Verterbukh fun der Yidisher Shprakh (2 vols., 1961) jointly with Judah A. *Joffe; further volumes were in preparation (1971).

Among Mark's attainments as a linguist are his numerous studies on Yiddish grammar and style, on the Hebrew-Aramaic component in the Yiddish language, and his stylistic analyses of the Yiddish authors. He was also the editor of the *yivo's Yidishe Shprakh (1941–68).

bibliography:

Rejzen, Leksikon, 2 (1927), 342–4; lnyl, 5 (1963), 510–4.

[Mordkhe Schaechter]