The ashes of Russian-Jewish poet Michael Bietalsky who spent years in Soviet Tabor camps, have been brought to Israel for re-burial and will be interred Sunday in the cemetery of Kibbutz Glil Yam. Bietalsky died in Moscow on August 18, 1978. At the request of his wife, a recent Jewish emigrant from the USSR brought the ashes to Israel where their daughter. Nina, now lives.
While Bietalsky was serving sentences in forced labor camps, his poems were smuggled to the outside world, often in hollow shoe soles. Their content earned him the title of “poet of sorrow, of longing and hope.” Many of his works, published in Russian, have been brought to Israel for publication here in Hebrew. Kibbutz Glil Yam asked that his remains be buried at its cemetery. The funeral services Sunday will be sponsored by the Association of Russians in Israel.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
