Esther Vilenska

MKs


Date of birth = 8 June 1918
Place of birth = Poland
Year of Aliyah = 1938
Date of death = 8 November 1975
Place of death =
Knesset(s) = 2nd, 3rd, 5th
Party = Maki
Former parties =
Gov't roles =

Esther Vilenska ( _he. אסתר וילנסקה, born born 8 June 1918, died 8 November 1974) was an Israeli communist politician, journalist and author.

Biography

Born in Poland, Vilenska was active in Hashomer Hatzair in Vilnius, the city in which she attended high school, before emigrating to Mandate Palestine in 1938. She attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, gaining a BA in sociology and an MA in History.

Vilenska joined the Palestine Communist Party in 1940, and in 1943 was appointed editor of the newspaper Kol Ha'am (lit. "Voice of the People"), becoming chief editor in 1947. In 1944 she was elected to the House of Representatives.

She joined the politbureau of Maki when it was formed upon Israeli independence in 1948, and in 1949 became a member of executive committee of the Histadrut, a role she served in until 1973. Also in 1949 she was elected onto Tel Aviv's city council.

She was elected to the Knesset in 1951, stepping down from Tel Aviv city council, serving until 1959, and then again from 1961 until 1965. Her tenure in the Knesset was marked by outspoken opposition to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, vigorous defense of civil liberties and a desire to improve economic and social conditions for women.

In 1973 she left Maki and founded a new party, Aki ( _he. אק"י, an acronym for "Opozitzia Komunistit Yisraelit" ( _he. אופוזיציה קומוניסטית ישראלית), lit. "Israeli Communist Opposition"), serving as editor of its monthly paper.

In addition to her political work, Vilenska was also a widely published writer. She was a regular contributor to leftist publications around the world, including the Saturday Morning Freiheit, a Yiddish language weekly published in New York. Vilenska's articles focused on identifying trends within the Israeli left and finding solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but often delved into cultural and international issues, such as the jailing of the African-American communist activist Angela Davis. Vilenska published numerous pamphlets and several books in Hebrew, Russian, Yiddish and English. Vilenska's labor history, "Confrontation and Unity within the Labor Movement (1889-1923)", was published posthumously in 1976.

Vilenska met and married fellow Maki leader, Meir Vilner in the 1940s. Vilenska later married Zvi Breidstein, editor of the Maki newspaper Kol Ha'am (Voice of the People). Vilenska and Breidstein lived in the Kiryat Shalom section of Tel Aviv and had two children. They were married until Vilenska's death in 1975.

Bibliography

*"The Peasants Revolt in Germany: the Pioneer of Social Revolutions" (1971)
*"The Socialist International and the Formation of the Comintern" (1974)
*"Confrontation and Unity within the Labor Movement (1889-1923)" (1976)
*"The National Question in Bolshevik Theory and Practice—until the Death of Lenin in 1924" (1977)
*"Values and Struggles: A Collection of Writings, Speeches and Work Law Proposals in the Knesset" (1977)

References

* [http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=394 Esther Vilenska on the Knesset website (in English)]