Esther Vilenska

Esther Vilenska (;‎ 8 June 1918 – 8 November 1975) was an Israeli communist politician, journalist and author who served as a member of the Knesset for Maki between 1951 and 1959, and then again from 1961 to 1965. She was a Lithuanian Jew from Vilnius.

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

Political career Members of the Israeli Communist Party in Haifa, 23 October 1948.Seated (L-R): Meir Vilner, Tawfik Toubi, Shmuel Mikunis, Emile Habibi, George Garabadian.Standing: Ruth Lubitsch, Eliyahu Drukman, Abraham Feigenboim, Wolf Ehrlich, Alyosha Gozansky, Pnina Feinhaus, Esther Vilenska, Mordechai Biletski. Vilenska joined the Palestine Communist Party in 1940, and in 1943 was appointed editor of the newspaper Kol HaAm (lit. Voice of the People), becoming chief editor in 1947. In 1944, she was elected to the House of Representatives. 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.

Personal life Vilenska met and married fellow Maki leader, Meir Vilner in the 1940s. They later divorced. Vilenska thereafter married Zvi Breitstein, also an editor of Kol HaAm. Vilenska and Breitstein lived in the Kiryat Shalom section of Tel Aviv and had two children. They were married until Vilenska's death in 1975.

Selected works "The problems of class struggle in Israel" (Heb) (1949) "Israel's Roadmap Towards Socialism" (Heb) (1968) Editor: “One Hundred Years Since the Birth of Lenin” (Heb) (1970) “The Peasants Revolt in Germany: the Pioneer of Social Revolutions” (Heb) (1971) The Socialist International and the Formation of the Comintern (Heb) (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 (Heb) (1977) Values and Struggles: A Collection of Writings, Speeches and Work Law Proposals in the Knesset (1977) Biography: “Chapters from My Life”, Ed. Zvi Britstein (Heb) (1984)