Itzik Feffer

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Itzik Feffer, Itzhak Pfeffer, or Fefer (Russian (language): Исаак Соломонович Фефер) (1900—August 12, 1952) was a Soviet Yiddish poet who fell victim to Stalin's purges.

Itzik Feffer was born in Shpola shtetl, Zvenigorod uyezd (district) of Kiev guberniya, Imperial Russia.

He wrote in Yiddish, and his poems were translated into Russian and Ukrainian. He is considered one of the greatest Soviet poets in the Yiddish language and his poems were widely admired inside and outside Russia. One of these is the epic poem, Di Shotns fun Varshever Geto ("The Shadows of the Warsaw Ghetto"). It is a tribute to the 750 Jews who rebelled against the Nazi liquidation of the ghetto and gave their lives fighting tyranny.

During the Second World War he was a military reporter with the rank of colonel and was vice chairman of the Soviet Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) abroad.

In his book, Stalin's War Against the Jews: The Doctors Plot & The Soviet Solution, Louis Rappaport alleges that Feffer assisted in the 1948 murder of Mikhoels. Feffer was vice chairman of JAC.

In 1948, after the assassination of the JAC Chairman Solomon Mikhoels, Feffer, along with other JAC members was arrested and accused of treason. Feffer had been an informer for the MVD (predecessor of the KGB) since 1943 and expected a different treatment. Feffer cooperated with the investigation, providing false information that would lead to the arrest, indictment and over a hundred peopleTemplate:Ref. Feffer had also allegedly been one of the "most loyal and conformist Yiddish poets," helped to enforce strict ideological control over other Yiddish writers, and had a history of denouncing colleagues for their "nationalistic hysteria."Template:Ref However, in 1952 Feffer, along with other defendants, was tried at a closed JAC trial, and executed.

Feffer was rehabilitated posthumously in 1955 after Stalin's death.

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Paul Robeson

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Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.

The American concert singer and actor Paul Robeson met Feffer on July 8, 1943 in New York during a Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee event chaired by Albert Einstein, the largest pro-Soviet rally ever held in the United States. After the rally, Essie and Paul Robeson entertained Feffer and Mikhoels.

Six years later, in June 1949, during the 150th anniversary celebration of the birth of Alexander Pushkin, Robeson visited the Soviet Union to sing in concert. Concerned about the welfare of Jewish artists, Robeson insisted to Soviet officials that he meet with FefferTemplate:Ref. Forced to communicate through hand gestures and notes because the room was bugged, Feffer indicated that Mikhoels had been murdered in 1948 by the secret police. Feffer also indicated that many other Jewish artists had been arrestedTemplate:Ref. Robeson responded publcly during his concert in Tchaikovsky Hall, June 14, 1948 by paying tribute to his friends Feffer and Mikhoels. He then sang the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising song "Zog Nit Kaynmal" in both Russian and Yiddish in defiance of Soviet authoritiesTemplate:Ref. Robeson also allegedly worked in vain to obtain Feffer's release.[[1]]

However, Robeson made no reference to Feffer's fate once back in the West, claiming that he "had heard no word about it", only telling the truth to a few sympathetic people. Feffer was killed in 1952. Template:Ref

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Book Reference

  • Rappaport, Louis. Stalin's War Against the Jews: The Doctors Plot & The Soviet Solution {Free Press: 1990) ISBN 0029258219
  • Stewart, Jeffrey C. (editor). Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizen. Hardcover (Rutgers Univ Pr, April 1, 1998) ISBN 0813525101, Paperback (Rutgers Univ Pr, April 1, 1998) ISBN 081352511X
  • Duberman, Martin. Paul Robeson: A Biography. 804 pages. New Press; Reissue edition (May 1, 1995). ISBN 156584288X.
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Books of poetry

  • Schpener, 1922
  • Wegen sich und asoine wi ich (About Me and Others Like Me), 1924
  • A stein zu a schtein (A Stone to a Stone), 1925
  • Proste teid (Simple Words), 1925
  • Bliendige Misten (Blossoming Garbage), 1926, a paradoxical title about the revival of a shtetl in Soviet times
  • Gefundene funken (Found Sparkles), 1928
  • Geweten (Competition), 1930
  • Plakaten of bronze (Posters in Bronze), 1932
  • Kraft (Force), 1937


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External links

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