LEYB GORFINKEL (March 15, 1896-September 7, 1976)
He was born in Kovno, Lithuania,
into a well-to-do family. He studied law
at the universities of Petrograd, Kiev, and Kovno. From his student days, he was an active
leader in the Zionist socialist workers’ movement. He was a member of the central committee of
Tseire-Tsiyon (Young Zionists), later of the Labor Zionist Union in Russia and
Lithuania. Over the years 1920-1922, he
served on the presidium of the first Jewish national council in Lithuania. He served as a deputy, 1926-1936, in the
Lithuanian parliament (Sejmas), as well as a member of the Kovno city
council. Until the coming of WWII to
Kovno, he worked there as a lawyer. He
was one of the most prominent leaders of Lithuanian Jews. In June 1940, after the Bolsheviks seized
Kovno, he was arrested and until the Nazi assault on Russia, he remained in a
Kovno jail. When the Germans occupied
Lithuania, he was among the first leaders to assist the poor Jews. He was a member of the Jewish committee,
later vice-chairman of council of elders in the ghetto. He was arrested by the Germans several times
on the charge of assisting in the construction of underground bunkers. For this he was tortured at the Ninth
Fort. Because of his post, he had the
possibility of living in better circumstances in the ghetto, but he declined
the opportunity of enjoying German privileges.
He also reported to Jews in the ghetto on Jewish community issues. During the liquidation of the Kovno ghetto, he
was deported to various German death camps.
In 1945 he was liberated from Dachau.
He spent 1946-1948 in Italy, where he was chairman of the Organization
of Jewish Refugees. From 1948 he was living
in Israel and was employed by the Control Committee of Mapai. He began writing in the party press in
Russia—Unzer veg (Our way) and Bafrayung (Freedom)—articles on
Jewish and Zionist labor issues. He also
contributed to Yidishe shtime (Jewish voice), Di tsayt (The
times), and Dos vort (The word), among other publications in Kovno. His essay, “Vikhtike momentn in kovner geto”
(Important moments in the Kovno ghetto), was published in volume 1 of the
anthology Lite (Lithuania) (New York, 1951), pp. 1679-1712. He contributed as well to Badereḥ (On the road) and In gang
(On the way) in Rome, and Milḥamotenu (Our wars) in Jerusalem (1955),
among others. Among his books: Der
tsienizm fun di arbetende (Zionism of workers) (Kiev, 1919), 45 pp.; Memorandum tsu der english-amerikanisher
oysforshung-komisye iber erets yisroel (Memorandum to the Anglo-American Commission for the Land of Israel)
(Rome, 1945), 22 pp. in mimeograph. He
also edited Yidishe shtime (1920), Unzer ruf (Our call)
(1925-1926), and Di tsayt (1932)—all in Kovno. He served on the editorial board of Yizker
bukh vegn litvishn yidntum (Memory book for Lithuanian Jewry), scheduled to
appear in Israel soon. A portion of his
work in Yiddish, Di nitsl-gevorene italyenishe yidn un vegn di yidishe
pleytim in italye (The survivors of Italian Jewry and the Jewish refugees
in Italy) appeared in Italian (Rome, 1945), 15 pp. He co-edited Yahadut lita (Lithuanian Jewry) in Tel Aviv. He was the author in Hebrew of Kovna hayehudit beḥurbana (The destruction of Kovno’s Jewry) (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1959), 330
pp. He died in Jerusalem.
Sources: Z. Ratner and Y. Kvitni, Dos yidishe bukh in f.s.s.r. in di yorn 1917-1921 (The Yiddish book in the USSR for the years 1917-1921)
(Kiev, 1930); Der yidisher natsyonal-rat in lite (The Jewish national
council in Lithuania) (Kovno, 1922); Dr. Y. Shatski, in Zamlbukh, lekoved dem tsvey hundert un
fuftsikstn yoyvl fun der yidisher prese 1686-1936 (Anthology in honor of
the 250th jubilee of the Yiddish press, 1686-1936); Yoysef Gar, Umkum
fun der yidisher kovne (Destruction of Jewish Kovno) (Munich, 1948), see
index; Who’s Who in Israel (Tel Aviv, 1952), p. 267.
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