Tidhar about Marmorosh

Source : David Tidhar's Encyclopedia, digitized by Turo college

David Tidhar's Entsiklopedyah le-Halutse ha-Yishuv u-Vonav ["Encyclopedia for the History of the Pioneers and Builders of the Zionism", 1947-1971] was a one-man project that took years. The author (according to Wikipedia's entry in Hebrew on the subject at least) had made it his goal to create, in effect, a Zionist "who's who" of the building of Israel. 

Tidhar's idiosyncratic methodology -- sending thousands of copies of a circular letter to the personalities he wanted to add to the book or their descendants, allowing some people to be included based on a contribution, etc. -- meant that his Encyclopedia was not widely quoted and not considered truly academic, but nevertheless it contains a wealth of information on numerous personalities that, before the Internet at least, was extremely difficult to come by in "official" sources. 

One entry, from the fourth volume (1950), p. 1723, includes a capsule biography of Menachem "Mendel" Marmorosh. The Encyclopedia notes, inter alia, the exact date of his book Shachmat -- 1945. It also adds more obscure information, such as:

- That the live chess event during Flohr's visit (1934) included live horses.

- That in his visit to the Emir Abdullah (1928) 'there is no need to say the Jewish wisdom beat the Eastern cunning'. 

- Exact date (21/3/1903) and place (Meili, now in Romania, then the Austro-Hungarian empire). 

- Names of parents, wife, and even mother-in-law. 

- Clarification that, despite being from Tel Aviv, he indeed was one of those who established the Halutzei Ha'Mizrach ("Eastern Pioneers") club in Jerusalem, where he also played in tournaments. 

- Was a member (since 1929) in the Ha'ganah, the pre-state paramilitary (and then illegal) organization. 

From the type of the material and the date (1950) it seems likely that Marmorosh himself was the source of the information.