Mukdoni, A.

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MUKDONI, A.

MUKDONI, A. (pseudonym of Alexander Kappel ; 1877–1958), Yiddish essayist, and theater critic. Born in Lyakhovichi, Belorussia, he began his literary career in Warsaw in 1906, specializing in theater criticism and publishing widely in Yiddish journals in Poland, Russia, and the U.S. Before earning a doctorate in labor law from the University of Bern, Switzerland, he studied in yeshivah and a Russian high school. After World War i, he edited the Kovno daily Nayes, before immigrating to the U.S in 1922. There he joined the daily Morgn-Zhurnal as literary and theater critic. He published Ertseylungen un Skitsn ("Stories and Sketches," 1911), and Y.L. Perets un dos Yidishe Teater ("I.L. Peretz and the Yiddish Theater," 1949) in addition to four volumes of memoirs: Mayne Bagegenishn ("My Encounters," 1949–55). He published his best critical essays in the volume Teater ("Theater," 1927), which includes keen observations on the Yiddish theater and Yiddish actors.

bibliography:

Rejzen, Leksikon, 2 (1927), 360–4; lnyl, 5 (1963), 547–53; S. Bickel, Shrayber fun mayn Dor (1958), 215–21; Mukdoni Yoyvl-Zamlbukh (1927). add. bibliography: Z. Zilbercweig, Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater, 2 (1934), 1284–6.

[Shlomo Bickel /

Anita Norich (2nd ed.)]