NIGHT OF THE MURDERED POETS

On the night of August 12, 1952, 13 Jewish writers, artists, journalists, and scientists were executed by a firing squad in Moscow’s infamous Lubyanka prison after years of confinement and torture to extract false confessions of treason and espionage. This mass execution, which would become known as the “Night of the Murdered Poets,” was one of Joseph Stalin’s last crimes before his death six months later.

Following years of repression of Yiddish and Jewish culture, a renewed campaign began in 1948 after the state-sponsored assassination of Solomon Mikhoels, who had led the Moscow State Jewish Theatre (GOSET). Mikhoels also led the Soviet Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC), formed during World War II to drum up Jewish support in the free world for the Soviet war effort. The truth about Solomon Mikhoels death (staged as an automobile hit-and-run in Minsk in 1948) was poorly concealed even then and publicly confirmed soon after Stalin’s death. The remaining members of the JAC were arrested beginning later that same year.

Among the casualties of the “Night of the Murdered Poets” were five Yiddish writers who were members of the JAC: David Bergelson, David Hofshteyn, Perets Markish, Itsik Fefer, and Leyb Kvitko, as well as legendary actor and Mikhoels’ successor as director of the GOSET, Benjamin Zuskin. Every year since the murders were revealed, Yiddishist organizations worldwide have honored the victims of that awful night, along with other victims of Soviet repression, with a memorial evening.

The five writers were all born in the Russian Empire. COJECO BluePrint fellow Yelena Shmulenson (herself a native of Crimea) offers a new staged documentary, examining how the Soviet state repressed Yiddish culture, to be performed on Thursday, August 10 at 7 pm.

Appearing in the upcoming program, sponsored by the Congress for Jewish Culture together with COJECO, are Shmulenson and her husband Allen Lewis Rickman, both stars of stage and screen in English & Yiddish (the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man, Off-Broadway’s Tevye Served Raw), along with Suzanne Toren and Shane Baker. This performance will be in English, Yiddish and Russian, with English supertitles.

The Wild Project is located at 195 East 3^rd Street, between Avenues A & B. Reservations are $10 and can be made through https://www.brownpapertickets.com. 

For more information visit https://www.CongressForJewishCulture.org or call 212-505-8040.