Writer Yuri Suhl Dead at 78

Yuri Suhl, a novelist, poet and biographer who was active in the civil rights and peace movements and the preservation of Yiddish culture, died in Oak Bluffs, Mass., on November 8 at the age of 78. He had lived in New York City and Martha’s Vineyard.

Suhl authored four books of Yiddish verse. He was best known for his English works, which included “They Fought Back,” a history of Jewish resistance in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II, published in 1967.

He was the author of 10 books for children, one of which, “Simon Bloom Gives a Wedding,” received the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1972. He also wrote a biography of Ernestine Rose, the Jewish woman pioneer in the suffragette movement, and two autobiographical novels, “One Foot in America” and “Cowboy on a Wooden Horse.”

Suhl became controversial for his efforts to prevent the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted for giving atomic secrets to Soviet spies. He became a trustee of the Rosenberg Children’s Trust Fund. Suhl was also an outspoken critic of the persecution of Jews in Poland and the Soviet Union. He identified him self politically as a Socialist.