Jakub Egit: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Canadian writer}}

{{Cleanup-date|June 2006}}

{{More citations needed|date=April 2007}}

{{wikify-date|June 2006}}

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'''Jakub Egit''' (27 September 1908 &ndash; 1996)<ref name="Grabski">{{cite book|last = Grabski|first = August|title = Działalność komunistyczna wśród Żydów w Polsce (1944-1949)|publisher = [[Jewish Historical Institute]]|date = 2004|___location = [[Warsaw]]|page = 108|language = Polish}}</ref> was a Polish [[Jew]]ish leader. He was born in [[Boryslav|Boryslaw]], [[Austria-Hungary]]. His parents, Marek and Shaindel, and his siblings, Marcus, Rachel, Reisl, Jonas and Genia, were all killed between 1943 and 1945.

'''Jakub (Jacob) Egit''' (b. 1908) was a [[Zionist]] leader and [[Soviet]] soldier. In 1945 Egit began an experiment to relocate 50,000 Jews in the town of [[Dzierżoniów]] (formerly Reichenbach a [[recovered territory]] from the [[Third Reich]]) near [[Wrocław]] in [[Silesia]], [[Poland]]. Initially Egit was supported by the [[communists]] in his endeavour to ensure that "here in this land, which Germans had cultivated for so many years, the Jews could exact retribution and justice by making the former German territory a Jewish settlement". Egit's plan to set up a ''[[Yishuv]]'' went well for three years. Starting with a small group of [[Kazettler]]s - KZ (Concetration Camp) survivors - the [[''Yishuv'']] quickly grew to encompass schools, hospitals, [[kibbutzim]], orphanages and a book publishers in [[Wrocław]]. It ended, however, in 1948 when the communists changed their policy, Egit was put in jail and the majority of [[Dzierżoniów]]'s citizens emigrated to [[Israel]]. From 1950 Egit was editor in Warsaw of ''J'idysz Buch''. Due to continued harassment Egit emigrated to [[Canada]] in 1957 where he became a prominent member of Canada's Jewish community. In 1991 he published his autobiography ''Grand Illusion'' (Toronto: Lugus)

In 1945, Egit began a project to create a settlement of 50,000 Jews in [[Dzierżoniów County]] (formerly Reichenbach), incl. the town of [[Dzierżoniów]] (the peak number of Jews in Drobniszew reached 17,800 in November 1946<ref>[http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/article/dzierzoniow/5,history/?action=view&page=10 Jewish community before 1989] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322142355/http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/article/dzierzoniow/5,history/?action=view |date=2016-03-22 }}</ref>), [[Bielawa]], [[Pieszyce]], [[Piława Górna]], etc., a [[Recovered Territories|Recovered Territory]] near [[Wrocław]] in [[Silesia]], [[People's Republic of Poland]]. Egit wanted to make the former German territory into a Jewish settlement. Initially, with Soviet Communist support, Egit's plan went well; starting with a small group of concentration camp survivors, the settlement grew to encompass Jewish schools, hospitals, [[kibbutzim]], orphanages and a book publisher in [[Wrocław]]. However, in 1948 the Communists withdrew their support. Egit was put in jail and the majority of [[Dzierżoniów]]'s citizens subsequently emigrated to [[Israel]].

More recently Egit has become a target for [[Polish Catholic anti-Semitic revisionist]]s who deny the [[Holocaust]] and seek to source the rise of [[Communism]] to a [[Jewish conspiracy]].

From his release in 1950, Egit was editor of ''[[J'idysz Buch]]'' in [[Warsaw]]. In 1957 he emigrated to [[Canada]], where he became a prominent member of [[History of the Jews in Canada|Canada's Jewish community]]. In 1991, he published his autobiography ''Grand Illusion''.

Egit died in Florida in 1996.

==References==

{{reflist}}

*''Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City'' Norman Davies and Roger Moorhouse.

*''Grand Illusion'', Jacob Egit

==Further reading==

* ''Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City'' [[Norman Davies]] and [[Roger Moorhouse.]]

* ''Grand Illusion'', Jacob Egit

{{Authority control}}

[[Category{{DEFAULTSORT:1908 births|Egit, Jakub]]}}

[[Category:Russian1908 expatriates in Canada|Egit, Jakubbirths]]

[[Category:Russian1996 Jews|Egit, Jakubdeaths]]

[[Category:Zionists|Egit,Canadian Jakubpeople of Polish-Jewish descent]]

[[Category:Polish emigrants to Canada]]

[[Category:Jewish Canadian writers]]

[[Category:Canadian Zionists]]

[[Category:People from Boryslav]]

[[Category:Canadian autobiographers]]