YOYSEF FRENKEL

YOYSEF FRENKEL (d. 1936?)

            He came from Kiev, Ukraine.  He was a member of the regional committee of the Bund.  From April 1917 to May 1919, he was a member of the editorial board of the Bund’s daily newspaper Di folks-tsaytung (The people’s newspaper) in Kiev.  At the time of the split, he left to join the Communists, was active in Yidgezkom (Jewish Social Committee [for the Relief of Victims of War, Pogroms, and Natural Disasters]) and Gezerd (All-Union Association for the Agricultural Settlement of Jewish Workers in the USSR), among other organizations.  From June 1919 to May 1924, he was a member of the editorial board (with M. Rafes and Y. Novakovski) of the newspaper Komunistishe fon (Communist banner) in Kiev and of the weekly supplements Yedies (Information) and Royte armey (Red Army).  He contributed to Arbeter kalendar af 1924 (Workers’ calendar for 1924) (Moscow, 1923) and published in it a piece about Yidgezkom.  In 1936 he was accused of Jewish nationalism and executed.

Sources: A. Kirzhnits, Di yidishe prese in ratnfarband, 1917-1927 (The Yiddish press in the Soviet Union, 1917-1927) (Minsk, 1928), pp. 25, 118; Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index; Geshikhte fun bund (History of the Bund), vol. 3 (New York, 1966), see index; Yisroel Serebriana, in Sovetish heymland (Moscow) 2 (1966), p. 145.

Khayim Leyb Fuks