Feitelson, Menahem Mendel
FEITELSON, MENAHEM MENDEL
FEITELSON, MENAHEM MENDEL (1870–1912), Hebrew writer and critic. Feitelson, who was born in Mikhailovka, Crimea, taught in Melitopol, and was active in the Hebrew Language Association in that city. A contributor to the He-brew press from his youth, he later published articles of topical interest and literary criticism. He wrote for Ha-Meliẓ (a comprehensive study of Mendele Mokher Seforim), Ha-Ẓefirah, and other journals. After publishing Meḥkarim be-Korot Yisrael (1890), he gave up writing for a time, taught in Sebastopol, and at the turn of the century settled in Yekaterinoslav. There he wrote a series of articles on Hebrew writers for Ha-Shilo'ah and also contributed to other periodicals. Unable to find employment in the literary centers of Eastern Europe, he grew increasingly depressed and committed suicide in 1912. The immediate reason for Feitelson's suicide is believed to be Mendele's insulting remarks to him regarding the essay he had written on Mendele. I. Cohen edited a collection of Feitelson's prose, Beḥinot ve-Ha'arakhot (1970), which includes an essay on the writer by A.B. Jaffe.
bibliography:
F. Lachower, in: M.M. Feitelson, Ketavim (1914); N. Goren, Mevakkerim be-Sifrutenu (1944), 59–68; Waxman, Literature, 4 (19602), 412–3; J. Barzilai, Ha-Shilo'aḥ 1896–1927 (1964), [index to Ha-Shilo'aḥ], 41.
[Getzel Kressel]