YITSKHOK YURISTA

YITSKHOK YURISTA (1903-July 1942)

            He was born in Tshenstokhov (Częstochowa), Poland.  From his youth he was active among the left Labor Zionists.  He left Poland in 1930 and settled in Paris.  He published articles on labor issues and literature in: Fraye yugnt (Free youth) in 1924, Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Arbeter-tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper), Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper), and Arbeter-kultur (Workers’ culture)—in Warsaw; as well as in the Częstochowa Yiddish press.  He published translations of Yiddish literature in the Esperanto journal, Literatura mundo (World literature).  On May 14, 1941, when the Germans executed their mass Aktion against the Jewish population in Paris, Yurista was also detained and sent to a concentration camp at Pitivye, and from there (on June 26, 1942) he was deported to Auschwitz and murdered.

Sources: H. Marder, in Arbeter vort (Paris) (August 9, 1950); Loti P. Malekh, in Undzer veg (New York) (August 1958).

Khayim Leyb Fuks