Bobe Mendel-Alter (25.07.1894, Riga – 07.06.1973, Tel Aviv) – engineer, historian, and public figure.
Mendel-Alter’s father, Shlema, son of Shmuel, a petty bourgeois, came to Riga with his parents from Žagarė (Lithuania). His mother, Elka, was the daughter of Mendel Kagan and the granddaughter of Rabbi Moses Yehuda Zelig Kagan from Piltene (then Pilten in Latvia), who had served as a rabbi in Hasenpoth (now Aizpute, Latvia). In 1852, Rabbi Moses Yehuda Zelig Kagan emigrated to Palestine with his wife and was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem (exact date of death not specified).
Bobe studied in a cheder, likely in Riga, and from the age of 12 attended a Realschule. He completed a private school and, in 1913, entered the Faculty of Chemistry at the Riga Polytechnic Institute, which was evacuated in 1915 during World War I to Moscow, where he continued his studies. He completed his degree in Ivanovo-Voznesensk, receiving a diploma as an engineer-technologist.
From his youth, Bobe was active in the Zionist movement. He joined Tseirei Zion when it was founded in Riga in 1912. He also participated in the Zionist student organisation Ha-Khaver, leading its Moscow branch for a time. In summer 1916, he worked with the Hebrew-language enthusiasts' society, which became Tarbut in 1917. In 1919, he and his wife left Moscow for Maksatikha in the Tver Governorate, and in 1921, the family returned to Riga.
For the decade prior to his emigration to Israel, Bobe was the elected chairman of the board of the Riga Health Fund. He remained deeply engaged in Tseirei Zion, and contributed to Yiddish periodicals including Der Veg (The Road), Arbeyts-Folk (Working People), and Unzere Veg (Our Road). Between 1921 and 1923, he served as secretary of the Central Council of Jewish Communities in Latvia, which was funded by the Joint Distribution Committee. In 1935, he was a delegate to the 19th Zionist Congress in Lucerne.
In 1935, Bobe emigrated to Palestine with his wife and daughters and settled in Tel Aviv. Their flat at 103 Ben-Yehuda Street became a social hub for Latvian Jews. He was a key founder and honorary secretary of the Association of Jews from Latvia and Estonia in Israel. He worked in a private firm for nearly 30 years, but his life's work became his involvement in this association and the study of Latvian Jewish history.
Bobe contributed regularly to the Tel Aviv-based journal He-Avar (The Past), publishing numerous articles, including:
“The First Historian of the Jews of Livonia and Courland” (1964, No. 11, pp. 118–122) – about Reuven Wunderbar
“Moscow on the Eve of the February 1917 Revolution and After” (1968, No. 5, pp. 99–108)
He was one of the editors of Zecher Mordechai (In Memory of Mordechai), a book dedicated to the life and work of Rabbi Mordechai Nurok (Jerusalem, 1967).
He was also instrumental in publishing the book of memoirs Yahadut Latvia (Jewry of Latvia), edited by B. Eliav, M. Bobe, and A. Kremer (Tel Aviv, 1953), in memory of Latvian Jews who perished in the Holocaust. It recounts the history of Latvian Jewry between the world wars, especially during the era of Latvian independence. An expanded English version, The Jews in Latvia, was published in Tel Aviv in 1971, edited by M. Bobe, I. Maor, Z. Michaeli (Michelson), and Sh. Levenberg.
Bobe was the author of two major works:
Prakim be-Toldot Yahadut Latvia (Chapters from the History of Latvian Jewry), in Hebrew (Tel Aviv: Reshafim, 1965)
Idn in Letland (Jews in Latvia), in Yiddish (Tel Aviv, 1972)
The Shamir Society in Riga later published Russian and Latvian translations of Jews in Latvia (Riga, 2006).
Bobe was buried at the Kiryat Shaul Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Selected Literature:
Bobe’s file in the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem, A. Rafaeli-Tsentzipper Collection (file 30-992)
Maor I., Article on Bobe (title desired), He-Avar, Vol. 11, 1973, pp. 289–290
Waldman B., “The Historian of Latvian Jewry Mendel Bobe,” in Jews in a Changing World, Proceedings of the 5th International Conference, Riga, 2005, pp. 83–95
Bode Esther-Hannah (née Rabiner) (b. [date unspecified], Piltene, Latvia – d. [date unspecified], 1951, Tel Aviv) – wife of Mendel Bobe.
Her maternal grandfather was a leader of the Jewish community in Piltene, and her paternal grandfather held a similar position in Bauska. She studied at the Stern-Trotsky Russian Gymnasium for Jewish girls in Liepāja and completed her dental studies at an institute in Moscow. She was active in the Tseirei Zion movement.
Between 1917 and 1919, while still a student, she worked at the Safrut publishing house in Moscow, where the editor-in-chief was Leib Yaffe.
In Israel, she worked as a dentist in Tel Aviv until the end of her life and was a devoted supporter of her husband’s public work.