'''Jakub (Jacob) Egit''' (born 1908) was a [[Zionist]] leader and [[Soviet]] soldier.
In 1945, Egit began ana experimentproject to relocatecreate a settlement of 50,000 Jews in the town of [[Dzierżoniów]] (formerly Reichenbach), a [[recovered territory]] from the [[Third Reich]]) near [[Wrocław]] in [[Silesia]], [[Poland]]. Initially Egit's motivation 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".{{who}} Egit'sInitially, planwith toSoviet setCommunist upsupport, aEgit's ''[[Yishuv]]''plan went well; for three years. Startingstarting with a small group of [[Kazettler]]sconcentration — KZ (Concetration Camp)camp survivors —, the ''[[Yishuv]]'' quicklysettlement grew to encompass schools, hospitals, [[kibbutzim]], orphanages and a book publishers in [[Wrocław]]. It ended, howeverHowever, in 1948 when the [[communist]]sCommunists changedwithdrew their policy,support. 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]]''.Duein to[[Warsaw]]. continuedIn harassment1957 Egithe emigrated to [[Canada]] in 1957, 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]]'' (Toronto: Lugus).
==Further reading==
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]].
==References==
*''Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City'' Norman Davies and Roger Moorhouse.
