Leyb Gorfinkel (March 14, 1896 – September 7, 1976; also known as Leib Garfunkel and Levas Garfunkelis in Lithuanian) was an advocate, journalist, and politician.
He was of
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
n and later of
Israeli
nationality.
Early life and career
Gorfinkel grew up in
Kovno
Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...
(now Kaunas), which was then in the
Russian Empire but which is currently in Lithuania.
While he was attending
Petrograd University (now Saint Petersburg State University), Gorfinel studied
jurisprudence.
For a time, he moved to
Gomel, and moved back to Konvo at the end of 1918.
In Kovno, he participated in various Jewish and Zionist activities.
In 1919, he helped organize the
Zionist daily newspaper ''Di idishe shtime'' (The Jewish Voice), which he himself edited between February 1920 and February 1922.
Gorfinkel was also a member of the presidium and then as vice chair of the Jewish National Council of Lithuania during this time.
In addition, he edited the bi-weekly newspaper ''Unzer ruf'' (Our Call) in 1925-1926 and the weekly newspaper ''Di tsayt'' (The Times) in 1932.
Gorfinkel was a member of the Lithuanian
Seimas (Parliament) between 1923 and 1927, where he represented the Zionists-Socialists and Tse‘ire Tsiyon.
He was also a member of the Kovno City Council from 1924 onward.
World War II and the Holocaust
He was an organizer of the Society to Aid Jewish Refugees from Poland in 1940; he was also arrested by the
USSR in June of that same year.
He was the vice chair of the Ältestenrat of the
Kovno Ghetto between 1941 and 1944, which was when
Nazi Germany was
occupying Lithuania.
Due to suspicion that he was engaging in "underground activity", Gorfinkel was arrested and tortured in April 1944. After the Kovno Ghetto was liquidated that same year, he was sent to
Kaufering concentration camp, which was near
Dachau
,
, commandant = List of commandants
, known for =
, location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany
, built by = Germany
, operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS)
, original use = Political prison
, construction ...
.
Fortunately, Gorfinkel managed to survive the war and the Holocaust.
Later life and death
Gorfinkel lived in
Rome, Italy
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (Romulus and Remus, legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
...
between 1945 and 1948.
In Rome, he was the head of the Organization of Jewish Refugees in Italy.
He
immigrated to Israel in 1948.
A week before his death, Gorfinkel was the first person to be interviewed by director
Claude Lanzmann for his film ''
Shoah'', which was only released in 1985 (almost a decade after Gorfinkel's death).
In this interview, Gorfinkel discussed his own experiences in the Kovno Ghetto during the Holocaust.
Gorfinkel died in 1976 at the age of eighty and was buried at
Har HaMenuchot.
Writing
* Levas Garfunkelis. ''Žydų tautinė autonomija Lietuvoje''
ewish national autonomy in Lithuania Kaunas: Š. Neumano spaustuvė, 1920.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gorfinkel, Leyb
1896 births
1976 deaths
Dachau concentration camp survivors
Israeli Jews
Israeli journalists
Israeli people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
Jewish Lithuanian politicians
Kovno Ghetto inmates
Lithuanian emigrants to Israel
Lithuanian journalists
Lithuanian Zionists
Members of the Seimas
Politicians from Kaunas
People from Kovensky Uyezd
Jews from the Russian Empire
20th-century journalists
Burials at Har HaMenuchot