Israel Matz

Israel Matz was born in 1869 in Kalvarija, a town described as part of Russian Poland by the Jewish Virtual Library and as Lithuania by JewishGen.[1][2] In a memoir written approximately two years before his death and published in the LITA Yizkor book in 1951, Matz recalled that Kalvarija had approximately 10,000 residents during his childhood, roughly 80 percent of them Jewish.[2]

In 1890, Matz emigrated to the United States.[1][2] He recalled arriving without a personal connection to meet him and being consoled and encouraged by Jewish strangers. When they learned he came from Kalvarija, he wrote, their sympathy turned to envy because Kalvarija Jews in America were reputed to be well off.[2] Matz became an accountant before entering the pharmaceutical or drug business.[1][2]

Matz portrayed his childhood home as a densely organized Jewish community. He wrote that its Jews used several languages in daily life, while Hebrew was employed for religious study, newspapers, books, and correspondence. His memoir described societies devoted to the study of Talmud, Mishnah, and Ein Yaakov; a five-level Jewish school; traditional heders and free Talmud Torah schools; and charitable associations that assisted poor brides, travelers, and families in need.[2]

Matz also recalled that during the First World War, German forces set fire to Kalvarija as they withdrew, leaving only a few streets with intact houses. According to his account, most of the Jewish population scattered and only about 1,500 residents remained.[2]

Matz traveled from America to Lithuania several times, making his last visit in 1938. He recalled that Jewish life there still appeared vibrant, with Hebrew and Yiddish schools, gymnasiums, institutions, and cultural activity, and wrote that the community could not foresee the annihilation that would follow.[2] He expressed his enduring attachment to the town: "I am still bound to my birthplace by so many memories, partly pleasant, partly sad."[2]

In 1906, Matz founded the Ex-Lax Company and served as its president.[1] His business activities later extended to Palestine. In 1928, he established a company to develop an orange plantation, rendered as Gan Ḥayyim by the Jewish Virtual Library and Gan Khaim by JewishGen.[1][2]

Matz was also active in Zionist and educational institutions. He served as a director of the Herzliah Hebrew Academy and on the executive committee of the Zionist Organization of America.[4] The Jewish Virtual Library characterizes him as a pioneer Zionist and records that he contributed to institutions of higher learning.[1]

Matz's involvement in Hebrew letters preceded the formal institution he eventually created. He aided Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in publishing his Hebrew-language thesaurus, and from 1922 to 1925 he served as publisher of the Hebrew monthly Ha-Toren, edited by Reuben Brainin. He was also a founding patron and honorary chairman of the Hebrew monthly Bitzaron.[1]

In 1925, Matz established the Israel Matz Foundation — formally called the Israel Matz Foundation for Hebrew Writers — to support Hebrew authors.[1][3] He endowed it with $100,000 in stock from his company. A 1935 article reported that during the foundation's first ten years, its trustees distributed nearly $80,000 in subsidies and assisted more than eighty needy writers or writers’ families through monthly stipends.[3]

A 1948 review discussed Igrot Sofrim Ivrim (Letters of Hebrew Writers), edited by Rabbi and Hebrew writer Dr. Max Raisin and published by Matz. The volume drew on a collection Matz had acquired of letters from writers of the Haskalah period, including correspondence addressed to Hebrew publisher Abraham Zuckerman of Warsaw, as well as letters sent to Matz by leading Hebrew writers of his generation. Raisin also incorporated letters he had received from other literary figures.[5]

The review said the correspondence illuminated the writers’ everyday concerns and financial difficulties. It characterized Matz as a patron who had supported Hebrew writers for more than a generation and helped them publish their work. The volume was dedicated to Sidney Matz, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Matz, who had died more than a year before the review appeared.[5]

Israel Matz died on February 9, 1950, in Brooklyn.[4] Institutions connected to his name and philanthropy continued beyond his death. JewishGen lists the Israel Matz Foundation in New York, which supports the publication of Hebrew literature and philosophy; the Israel Matz Institute for Research in Jewish Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and the Matz Chair in Organic Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science.[2]

His memoir, translated by Gloria Berkenstat Freund, was published on pages 1499–1512 of the LITA Yizkor book in 1951. It preserves his retrospective account of the Jewish community in Kalvarija before its destruction.[2]

The sources use different geographic labels for Matz's birthplace: the Jewish Virtual Library identifies Kalvarija as part of Russian Poland, while JewishGen identifies it as Lithuania.[1][2] They also render the name of his 1928 Palestine company differently, as Gan Ḥayyim and Gan Khaim.[1][2]

JewishGen presents the Kalvarija material as a translated memoir written in 1948, approximately two years before Matz's death, and published in the 1951 LITA Yizkor book. Its descriptions of the town and its wartime destruction are therefore Matz's retrospective recollections rather than independently corroborated accounts.[2]