The Soviet Yiddish monthly, Sovietishe Heimland, published a bitter attack on Esther Markish, widow of the late Russian-Yiddish poet Peretz Markish, who recently emigrated to Israel with her son David. The publication implied that Mrs. Markish’s interest in her husband’s works is based on “financial considerations.”
The latest issue of the magazine described Mrs. Markish as “an adventurist” and “gold digger” who is “touring the Western world and using lying Zionist propaganda for material advantage.” Sovietishe Heimland alleged that Mrs. Markish and “her mixed up son” are “selling the name (of Peretz Markish) to the Zionists.”
The article referred throughout to Mrs. Markish by her maiden name, Lazebnikova, and sought to draw a distinction between herself and Peretz Markish who was murdered in the Stalin purge of Jewish writers and intellectuals during the early 1950s. Markish was rehabilitated posthumously and his works are no longer banned in Russia. But no mention is ever made of the way he died.
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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.
