YEKHIEL TSHITSHELNITSKI

YEKHIEL TSHITSHELNITSKI (1909-1980)

            He was a journalist and editor, born in Berdichev, into a poor laboring family. He lived in a children’s home, later in a home for youths. In the 1930s, he graduated from a Party school in Kiev, worked as secretary and at times as editor of the newspaper Yunge gvardye (Young guard); later, he was a contributor to the daily newspaper Der shtern (The star) which was based in Kharkov and Kiev. Together with the majority of those on the editorial board, he published the final issue of the paper on June 26, 1941 and volunteered to serve at the front. He wrote reportage pieces from the front and sketches concerning the role played by Jewish soldiers and officers in the fighting against the invaders. After the war, he settled in Czernowitz and was a special correspondent for the newspaper Eynikeyt (Unity) in the western regions of Ukraine. In 1975-1976, he lived in Moscow and worked as the secretary in charge and later a replacement on the editorial board of the journal Sovetish heymland (Soviet homeland); he published a series of documentary stories, essays on literary themes, and translations of prose works. Due to a serious illness, he was forced to stop working and return to Czernowitz, where he soon passed away.

Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), pp. 166-67.