Leyb Moiseyevich Kvitko (, ) (October 15, 1890 – August 12, 1952) was a prominent Yiddish poet, an author of well-known children's poems and a member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC). He was one of the editors of Eynikayt (the JAC's newspaper) and of the Heymland, a literary magazine. He was executed in Moscow on August 12, 1952 together with twelve other members of the JAC, a massacre known as the Night of the Murdered Poets. Kvitko was rehabilitated in 1955. He was born in a Ukrainian shtetl, attended traditional Jewish religious school for boys (cheder) and was orphaned early. He moved to Kyiv in 1917 and soon became one of the leading Yiddish poets of the "Kiev Group". He lived in Germany between 1921 and 1925 joining there the Communist Party of Germany and publishing critically acclaimed poetry. He returned to the Soviet Union in 1925 and moved to Moscow in 1936, joining the CPSU in 1939. By that time he was primarily writing verses for children and his style fully corresponded to the canons of socialist realism. Gallery References External links The Jewish Poet, Lev Kvitko Selected poetry of Jewish poet Lev Knitrko Life would have been magnificent, contains Kvitko's letters to friends, in Almanac "Yegupets", No 9, Kiev 1890 births 1952 deaths 20th-century male writers 20th-century Ukrainian poets 20th-century Ukrainian writers People from Podolia Governorate Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Children's poets Executed writers Yiddish-language poets Jewish anti-fascists Jewish socialists Jewish Ukrainian poets Jews executed by the Soviet Union Jews from the Russian Empire Soviet children's writers Soviet Jews Soviet male poets Soviet male writers Soviet rehabilitations Ukrainian anti-fascists Ukrainian children's writers Ukrainian Jews Ukrainian male poets Ukrainian male writers