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

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

nationality Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a ''national'', of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the ...

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 The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

but which is currently in Lithuania. While he was attending

Petrograd University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...

(now Saint Petersburg State University), Gorfinel studied

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

. For a time, he moved to

Gomel Gomel (russian: Гомель, ) or Homiel ( be, Гомель, ) is the administrative centre of Gomel Region and the second-largest city in Belarus with 526,872 inhabitants (2015 census). Etymology There are at least six narratives of the ori ...

, 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 Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

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 The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas), or simply the Seimas (), is the unicameral parliament of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of government in Lithuania, enacting laws and amendmen ...

(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 The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in June of that same year. He was the vice chair of the Ältestenrat of the

Kovno Ghetto The Kovno Ghetto was a ghetto established by Nazi Germany to hold the Lithuanian Jews of Kaunas during the Holocaust. At its peak, the Ghetto held 29,000 people, most of whom were later sent to concentration and extermination camps, or were sho ...

between 1941 and 1944, which was when

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

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 Kaufering was the common name of a system of eleven subcamps of the Dachau concentration camp which operated between 18 June 1944 and 27 April 1945 and which were located around the towns of Landsberg am Lech and Kaufering in Bavaria. Previou ...

, 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 Claude Lanzmann (; 27 November 1925 – 5 July 2018) was a French filmmaker known for the Holocaust documentary film ''Shoah'' (1985). Early life Lanzmann was born on 27 November 1925 in Paris, France, the son of Paulette () and Armand Lanzmann. ...

for his film ''

Shoah The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ar ...

'', 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 Har HaMenuchot ( he, הר המנוחות, Ashkenazi pronunciation, Har HaMenuchos, lit. "Mount of Those who are Resting", also known as Givat Shaul Cemetery) is the largest cemetery in Jerusalem. The hilltop burial ground lies at the western ed ...

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