Kitai Moishe-Mikhl (1886-1942)

Kitai Moishe-Mikhl (Moische-Michl) (1886, Riga – 1942), journalist, translator.

From 1893, Moishe-Mikhl Kitai lived in Zhagory (now - Žagari), studied at a cheder, and returned to Riga in 1901. He travelled extensively throughout Europe and Russia. In 1921, he arrived in Riga, and in the 1930s, he lived in Warsaw. At the beginning of World War II, he fled to Sweden, then to the USSR, and during Nazi occupation remained in Riga. In 1910, he debuted with a poem in the newspaper Die Yiddishe Shtime, then wrote satires, plays, reviews, and articles on literary topics. Kitai was particularly active as a journalist in the Riga newspaper Frimorgn (from 1926) and the Warsaw weekly Literarische Blätter (from 1934), of which he was editor in 1937. Author of the book: ‘Unzere schreiber un künstler’ (‘Our Writers and Artists,’ 1936). In 1929, he published the novel ‘Alz zulib karjere’ (‘All for the Career’) in Riga.