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Joseph Lestschinsky

LESTSCHINSKY, JOSEPH ("Chmurner"; 1884–1935), Jewish socialist leader in Russia and Poland. Both Joseph, who was born in the Ukraine, and his brother, Jacob *Lestschinsky, joined a circle of Zionist youth in Warsaw which acquired in 1903 a socialist character. In 1905 Lestschinsky helped to found the *Zionist-Socialist Workers Party and was a member of its central committee. He was a theoretician of *territorialism in the party, edited its publications, and published his articles in them. One of the leaders of the left wing of the *United Jewish Socialist Workers' Party in the Ukraine in 1917, he was its representative on the Central Council of the Ukraine (Rada) and on the Jewish National Council. In 1921 he went to Poland, where he joined the *Bund and became the chief ideologist and publicist of its leftist faction.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Chmurner-Bukh (Yid., 1958); LNYL, 5 (1963), 376–80; B. Johnpoll, The Politics of Futility (1968), index.


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.