Hirsh Lekert (born 1880 in

Onuškis Onuškis is a small town in Lithuania in the Trakai district municipality, around from Trakai and south of Aukštadvaris Aukštadvaris () is a town in Trakai district municipality in Lithuania on the Verknė river. According to 2011 census, ...

, in the

Troksky Uyezd The Troki uezd was a county (''uezd'') of the Vilna Governorate of the Russian Empire. The uezd was bordered by the Mariampol, Kalvariya, and the Seyny uezds of the Suwałki Governorate to the west, the Lidsky Uyezd, Lida uezd to the south, the Vi ...

Vilna Governorate The Vilna Governorate was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Northwestern Krai of the Russian Empire. In 1897, the governorate covered an area of and had a population of 1,591,207 inhabitants. The governorate was defined by the Minsk Governo ...

Nachman Ben-Yehuda, "Political assassinations by Jews: a rhetorical device for justice", SUNY Press, 1993, pg. 106

/ref> died June 10, 1902, in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

Jeffrey S. Gurock, "American Jewish history, Volume 3, Part 1", Taylor & Francis US, 1998, pg. 323

/ref>) was a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

activist and member of the

Bund Bund, BUND, or the Bund may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Der Bund'', a German-language newspaper published in Bern, Switzerland * Shanghai Bund (TV series), ''Shanghai Bund'' (TV series), a 2007 Chinese television remake of the 19 ...

Biography

Lekert was an illiterate shoemaker who was active in the Bund since his youth. On May 24, 1900, he led a group of people in an attack on a police station in

and released three arrested workers. He was caught and exiled to

Yekaterinoslav Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

. He escaped in 1902 and came to Vilnius. On May 18, 1902, he carried out an unsuccessful assassination attempt of the governor of Vilnius, General

Victor von Wahl Viktor Karl Konrad Wilhelm von Wahl (; 1840–1915) was a Baltic German general, mayor of St. Petersburg, and governor of Vilna Governorate. He came from Baltic German noble Wahl family, which was a branch of the Scottish MacDowall clan. Von W ...

.Hirsz Abramowicz, Eva Zeitlin Dobkin, Dina Abramowicz, Jeffrey Shandler, David E. Fishman, Yivo Institute for Jewish Research, "Profiles of a lost world: memoirs of East European Jewish life before World", Wayne State University Press, 1999, pg. 141

/ref> When von Wahl, who had previously been a mayor of

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

, was made governor of the city, the Bund had organized demonstrations against him. Later von Wahl was responsible for repressive measures directed at Vilnius's workers, and the Bund in particular. Von Wahl ordered the arrest and flogging of a number of Jewish and Polish workers who had taken part in the

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's March equinox, spring equinox and midsummer June solstice, solstice. Festivities ma ...

parade in 1902.Dovid Katz, "Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish", Basic Books, 2007, pg. 260

/ref> Because of the practices of his administration, plots for his assassination began to be formed soon after his arrival. Lekert, together with several other Bund members began watching von Wahl's movements, bought weapons and trained in forests outside of Vilna. However, most of the formal plans fell through and Lekert's attempt was made without any preparation. Lekert, who was working as a shoemaker at the time, fired a pistol twice at the governor as von Wahl was exiting the

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...

show, wounding him in the leg and arm. Lekert was immediately arrested, beaten, then transferred to the city's prison. Under pressure from the

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

Vyacheslav von Plehve Vyacheslav Konstantinovich von Plehve ( rus, Вячесла́в Константи́нович фон Пле́ве, p=vʲɪtɕɪˈslaf kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ fɐn ˈplʲevʲɪ; – ) was a Russian politician who served as the directo ...

, Hirsh Lekert was tried by a military court. He was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. At his trial, Lekert, despite the advice of a local

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

, refused to ask for forgiveness and gave an eloquent speech on the dignity of the Jewish worker. The sentence was carried out on June 10, 1902. Subsequently, Hirsh Lekert became a folk heroEzra Mendelsohn, "Class struggle in the pale: the formative years of the Jewish workers' movement in Tsarist Russia", CUP Archive, 1970, pg. 131

/ref> to some in the workers' movement. Several

dramas Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been c ...

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

and many poems were written as a tribute to him. The most well known of these is the poem by Abraham Suckewer "די לערערין מיראַ" (''Di Lererin Mira'' - The Teacher Mira).Hirsz Abramowicz, Eva Zeitlin Dobkin, Dina Abramowicz, Jeffrey Shandler, David E. Fishman, Yivo Institute for Jewish Research, "Profiles of a lost world: memoirs of East European Jewish life before World", Wayne State University Press, 1999, pgs 132+

/ref>

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lekert, Hirsh 1880 births 1902 deaths People from Trakai District Municipality People from Troksky Uyezd Lithuanian Jews Bundists Failed assassins 1902 crimes in the Russian Empire Executed Lithuanian people People executed by the Russian Empire by hanging People executed for attempted murder