EYNIKEYT

EYNIKEYT ("Unity"), official organ of the jewish anti-fascist Committee in the Soviet Union. Eynikeyt began to appear in Kuibyshev in June 1942 once every ten days under the editorship of Shakhne Epstein. The editorial board consisted of: D. Bergelson , Y. Dobrushin , S. Halkin , S. Mikhoels , L. Strongin, I. Fefer , L. Kvitko , and A. Kushnirov . After Epstein died, G. Shitz was named chief editor. In July 1943 Eynikeyt moved to Moscow and became a weekly magazine. By February 1945 it began to come out three times a week, but publication was stopped on Nov. 20, 1948, with the liquidation of all Jewish cultural institutions in the U.S.S.R. Altogether, about 700 issues of Eynikeyt were published, and its contributors included all the Yiddish writers of the Soviet Union. Some of their contributions were first published there, like Fefer's famous poem "Ich bin a Yid" ("I Am a Jew"). The newspaper was devoted entirely to the war effort, carrying stories on the atrocities perpetrated against Jews in the countries occupied by the Germans and emphasizing the contribution and the bravery of Jews in the war against the Nazis. There was a column called "Jewish Life Abroad," with reports on Jewish events outside the U.S.S.R., Jews in the anti-Nazi underground, and also events in the yishuv of Palestine. The paper reported the visit of Mikhoels and Fefer to the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Great Britain, and also the visit of the Americans Goldberg and Novik. These visits later served the KGB in drawing up its accusations of espionage for the West in the case of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. After the war Eynikeyt continued to appear under the guidance and supervision of the Soviet authorities. This control was especially noticeable in the paper's editorial policy toward the struggle of the yishuv in Palestine. In the first half of 1948, in conformity with official Soviet policy, the paper supported Israel's war of independence and the establishment of the State of Israel. But from September 1948 until its dissolution, it published attacks on Zionism. The employees of Eynikeyt shared the fate of other Jewish cultural activists. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ben-Yosef, in: Yad Vashem Studies, 4 (1960), 135–61; Litvak, in: Gesher (1966), 218–32. (Yehuda Slutsky / Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)