YIDISHE SHTIME

YIDISHE SHTIME, a daily paper published in Kovno (Lithuania). Founded in 1919, it was published by the General Zionist Organization of Lithuania, but became the acknowledged organ of the whole of Lithuanian Jewry. At first the paper consisted only of two small sheets, but from the end of 1920 it ran to eight pages on weekdays and 12 or more at weekends and on holidays. The first editor was L. Garfunkel, who was succeeded in 1921 by A. Elyashiv. R. Rubinstein was chief editor from 1923 and was largely responsible for developing the newspaper and giving it high standing. From time to time Yidishe Shtime had regular supplements, such as Hed Lita ("Echo of Lithuania") which appeared weekly in Hebrew; Die Welt, an illustrated weekly printed in Berlin; and Musu garsas ("Our Voice") in Lithuanian. In June 1940, with the invasion of Lithuania by the Russians, the paper and its printing press were nationalized and turned into an organ of the local Jewish Communists. Rubinstein, the editor, was dismissed, imprisoned soon after for the "crime of Zionism," and sent to a concentration camp in northern Russia. The paper survived only a short time until the appearance of the official Communist Yiddish journal, Kovner Emes ("Kovno Truth"). (Leib Garfunkel)