Menachem Kipnis received a traditional Jewish education and sang with his brother in the choir of the Chernobyl synagogue.

[10] Together with his wife Zimra Zeligfeld he toured with concerts of Yiddish folk songs in Poland, France, and Germany.

There was a (possibly apocryphal) story that the women of Chelm asked Kipnis to stop doing this because their daughters could not find bridegrooms: every time they hear from a shadkhn that the girl is from Chelm, they cannot stop laughing.

[11] He later published these tales in the book Khelemer mayses (Chelm Stories; Polish transcription: Chelemer Majses, 1930).

[12] In additional to the Chelm column, he published feuilletons and authoritative articles on Jewish music, as well as reviews of music and theater in Haynt and other Jewish press, sometimes under pen name "Pan Mecenas" (Mr.