YOYSEF FURMANOVITSH

YOYSEF FURMANOVITSH (1903-1936)

            He came from Lithuania and was active in Hashomer Hatsair (The young guard).  In 1921 he came to the land of Israel.  For a time he worked on the land, both on kibbutzim and in construction.  He was an active leader in the Communist Jewish movement, mainly in the Jerusalem district.  He was a member of the central committee of the Palestine Communist Party and its representative in the Comintern.  In 1930 he was arrested by the British Mandate authorities and deported from the country.  He then settled in Moscow, and from there he directed illegal party work in Israel.  From 1923 he contributed to and co-edited virtually all Yiddish and Hebrew publications of the Palestine Communist Party.  He also published under such pen names as: Yosef Bal-Egla and Treger.  In 1936, during the Show Trials against “right deviation,” he was accused of Jewish nationalism and shot in the Moscow prison.

Sources: Y. Berger-Barzilai, in Yisroel-shtime (Tel Aviv) (March 6, 1962); M. Unger, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (April 9, 1962).

Khayim Leyb Fuks