Smilansky, Meir

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SMILANSKY, MEIR

SMILANSKY, MEIR (pseudonym, M. Secco ; 1876–1949), Hebrew writer. Born in Kiev district, the brother of Moshe *Smilansky, Meir went to Ereẓ Israel in 1891, and joined his family at Ḥaderah, which had just been founded. In 1892 he returned to Russia where he was employed in his father's business enterprises. He went blind in 1915, and subsequently endured the pogroms in the Ukraine. In 1921 he finally returned to Ereẓ Israel, after several years of wandering, and, with the help of his relatives, rehabilitated himself.

Encouraged in his writing by N. *Sokolow, he published stories in Ha-Ẓefirah, in Lu'aḥ Aḥi'asaf, and especially in Ha-Shilo'aḥ, edited by *Bialik, who also helped Smilansky improve his style. These earlier works dealt with the Ukrainian village and its Jewish inhabitants. His later stories dealing with the pogroms against Ukrainian Jewry were collected in the volume Even Tizak (1940).

bibliography:

Kressel, Leksikon, 2 (1967), 525.

[Getzel Kressel]