Meir Yellin — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Meir Yelin (in Russian: Меир Елин), was born in Russian Lithuania in 1910 and died in Israel on the 3^rd of January 2000. He was a well-known Yiddish writer and member of the underground in the Kovno ghetto. He published in "Di Yidishe Shtime" ("The Jewish Voice") - the Jewish newspaper of Zionist Lithuania, and in "Di Wortt" ("The Word") - the Socialist Zionist magazine in Lithuania, and was a member of its editorial board. He was active in a group of Yiddish writers in Lithuania. During the Nazi occupation he was interned in the Kovno ghetto. He was part of the rebel movement led by his brother Chaim Yelin. He continued to publish under the Soviet regime. He immigrated to Israel in 1973. He published books dedicated to the Holocaust. He was awarded a prize by the World Center of the Yiddish PEN Club in New York, as well as the Jewish Agency Award and the Itzik Manger Prize.

Meir Ben Eliezer (Laser) Yelin was born in 1910 in the town of Seredžius (then in the Russian Empire; today in Lithuania) to parents who were Hebrew teachers, and the language spoken at home was Hebrew.

During the First World War, the family was exiled to Russia and returned from there in 1921. His parents settled in Kovno and his father served as a librarian in a Yiddish language library of left-wing circles operated by the "Lover of Knowledge" Society.

In 1928, he graduated from the local high school, and in 1933, from the Technion in the city of Darmstadt, Germany as a construction engineer.

From his youth, he wrote stories and poems in Hebrew and Yiddish, some of which were published in 1926 in the booklet "Tlalim", and from 1928, published lists and stories in the Lithuanian Zionist Jewish daily "Di Yidishe Shtime" ("The Jewish Voice"), and especially in the Socialist Zionist magazine in Lithuania, "Dos Wortt" ("The Word").

He was active in a group of Yiddish writers in Lithuania and published stories in the group's annual almanacs from 1937-1940.

During the Nazi occupation, he was interned in the Kovno ghetto. He was part of the rebel movement led by his brother Chaim Yelin, who led hundreds of fighters from the ghetto to the partisan forests which eventually cost him his life.

After this tragic event, Meir fled the ghetto.

Upon the liberation of Kovno by the Red Army in August 1944, he participated in the founding of a kindergarten, a school and an orphanage for surviving Jewish children.

He has published articles and books on the suffering of Lithuanian Jews during the Nazi occupation, including the book "Partisans of the Kovno Ghetto" with Dima (Dimitri) Galfern, one of the main activists of the rebel movement, and Chaim Yelin's deputy (Moscow, 1948).

He worked as a construction engineer. After Stalin's death in 1953, he devoted himself entirely to literary work.

In 1972, a comprehensive collection of his stories: "Their Glances Met," on the subject of the Holocaust and heroism.

In 1973 he immigrated to Israel with his family.

He lectured at ORT College on construction problems, and at the same time was a member of the editorial board of the fourth volume of the book "Lithuanian Jewry" dedicated to the Holocaust.

He was active in the Association of Jews from Lithuania in Israel and was a member of its Board.

Since making Aliyah, he has published books in Yiddish (in Hebrew his book "Dam and Neshek" ("Blood and Weapons"- published in 1985, and translated from the Yiddish) dedicated to the subject of the Holocaust and the heroism of Lithuanian Jews.

He was a member of the Board of the Yiddish Writers' Association in Israel and the director of the Association's book publishing house named after H. Leivik.

For his literary work, he was awarded the World Center of the Yiddish PEN Club prize in New York, as well as the Jewish Agency Award and the Itzik Manger Prize.

He died on the 3^rd of January 2000.

Source: Wikipedia [Hebrew]