ELYE (ELI) TSHERNYAVSKI

ELYE (ELI) TSHERNYAVSKI

            He came from Minsk, Byelorussia, and was a labor leader, historian, and demographer.  He lectured on the history of the labor movement in Byelorussia at the Minsk pedagogical institute (1930-1934) and was a member of the historical commission of the Jewish section of the Byelorussian Scientific Academy.  He contributed work to: Oktyabr (October), Shtern (Star), and publications of the Jewish section of the Byelorussian Scientific Academy: Tsaytshrift (Periodical) in 1930 and Afn visnshaftlekhn front (On the scientific front) in 1932-1935—all in Minsk.  His books include: Der yidisher arbeter in vaysrusland, bam baginen fun der yidisher arbeter-bavegung (The Jewish workers in Byelorussia, at the dawn of the Jewish labor movement) (Minsk, 1932), 166 pp.; Di antshteyung fun der arbeter-bavegung in vaysrusland (The perspective of the labor movement in Byelorussia) (Minsk, 1934), 180 pp.  Both books, which overlooked citations from Lenin that “Jews from the scientific standpoint were not a nation” (ethnic group) and his attacks on the Bund, were nonetheless vilified by Communist Party critics “for apologizing to class enemies and for Jewish nationalism,” and this led to his liquidation.

Sources: R-n, in Afn visnshaftlekhn front (Minsk) 1-2 (1932), pp. 142, 145; Y. Hershenboym, in Emes (Moscow) 140 (1933); V. Frishman, in Oktyabr (Minsk) 140 (1933); N. Rubinshteyn, Dos yidishe bukh in sovetn-farband in 1932 (The Yiddish book in the Soviet Union in 1932) (Minsk, 1933), no. 127; N. Mayzil, Dos yidishe shafn un der yidisher shrayber in sovetnfarband (Jewish creation and the Yiddish writer in the Soviet Union) (New York, 1959), p. 128.

Khayim Leyb Fuks

[Additional information from: 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. 168-69.]