Jennie Lebel Her Life And Work

zeni.jpg Jennie Lebel

( See also: Ženi Lebl / Löbl; in Hebrew: ג'ני לבּל)

Born in Serbia, Yugoslavia, June 20, 1927, passed away in Israel on October 20, 2009. During WW II, her mother Ana Lebl (nee Robichek) was taken to the Judenlager Semlin (known as Sajmishte Death Camp) near Belgrade, where she was murdered in a gas truck. Her father Leon H. Lebl, engineer, reserve Lieutenant Colonel, was German prisoner of war and her brother Alexander, after beeing in the camp Rab (Arbe), joined the partisans. Jennie found refuge under a false name in the city of Nish, where she was hiden by Yelena Glavashki and with whom she worked together in printing partisan pamphlets until they were jailed in February 1943. This Righteous Gentile was executed, while Jennie was sent to Germany, and imprisoned in jails and concentration camps and no one knew her real identity. In the end of April 1945, she was liberated from the Gestapo jail in Berlin, and returned to Belgrade, where she finished the High school and studied law and journalism and diplomacy at the University of Belgrade. Simultaneously she worked as a journalist for the daily ‘Politika’ and was destined to be a correspondent of the newspaper in Paris, but due to a colleague who used slander because he also wanted the position, she was imprisoned in April 1949 for ‘insulting the regime’ after telling a joke about the Yugoslav ruler Josip Broz-Tito. After 4 months of interrogation, without trial, she was issued a sentence “in the name of the people”: administrative punishment / removal of liberty and forced labor for the benefit of society for a period of one year. After two and a half years of excruciating hard labor in the Yugoslav ‘Gulags’, she was released.

After being refused permission for three years to receive a passport, she was allowed to leave Yugoslavia and immigrated to Israel in September 1954. From 1955 to 1957, she studied in the Radiographers School at the Rambam Hospital in Haifa, worked from 1957 to 1961 at the Poria Hospital, Tiberias, then she started to work in the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. From 1964 until her retirement, she directed the School for Radiographers at the Tel Aviv–Jaffa Medical Center and lectured in the discipline of Radiography.

During the years, in the framework of the Historical Committee of the Union of Jews from Yugoslavia in Israel and otherwise, she pursued research on the history of the Jews of Yugoslavia, especially from Macedonia and Serbia. She wrote 19 books and many articles in Hebrew and Serbo-Croatian. For her historical researches she received 26 prizes in annual anonymous competitions of the Union of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia. She was invited to Memorial Museum in Washington, lectured in Israel and at the congresses in Belgrade, Dubrovnik, Leipzig etc. She also translates from Hebrew literature to Serbo-Croatian (poetry and prose). Her translations were published in various publications and radio broadcasts in the countries of Ex-Yugoslavia. In Israel she has been a regular contributor to many publications and was editor of the Bulletin of the Union of Jews from Yugoslavia in Israel.

B O O K S

1/ GEUT VA’SHEVER – Perakim BaToldot Yehudei Makedonia HaVardarit [Tide and Wreck – Chapters in the History of the Jews of Vardar Macedonia], (Jerusalem, Moreshet – Council of Sephardic and Oriental Jewish Communities in Jerusalem, and the Center for the Integration of the Oriental Jewish Heritage of the Israeli Ministry of Education and Culture, 1986) – (Hebrew), XIV & 310 pp.

2/ PLIMA I SLOM, Iz istorije Jevreja Vardarske Makedonije, [Tide and Wreck – Chapters in the History of Macedonian Jewry] - (Gornji Milanovac, Dečje novine, 1990) – (Serbo-Croatian), XV & 445 pp.

3/ LJUBIČICA BELA, Vic dug dve i po godine (Goli otok), [The White Violet – On the Yugoslav Gulag for Women] (Two editions), (Gornji Milanovac, Dečje novine, 1990) – (Serbo-Croatian), 213 pp.

4/ JEVREJI U PIROTU [The History of the Jews in Pirot] (Beograd: Privredni Pregled & Pirot, Sloboda, 1990) – (Serbo-Croatian), 106 & 32 pp.

5/ DNEVNIK JEDNE JUDITE – Beograd 1941, [A Diary of Judith – Belgrade 1941], (Gornji Milanovac, Dečje novine, 1990) – (Serbo-Croatian), 127 pp.

6/ JEVREJSKE KNJIGE ŠTAMPANE U BEOGRADU 1837-1905, [Jewish books printed in Belgrade 1837-1905], (Gornji Milanovac, Dečje novine, 1990) – (Serbo-Croatian), 150 pp.

7/ JERUSALIMSKI MUFTIJA [The Mufti of Jerusalem], (Beograd, Nova, 1993) - (Serbo-Croatian), 210 pp.

8/ HA-SIGALIT HA-LEVANA [The White Violet, An Autobiographic Story on the Yugoslav Women’s Gulag], Two editions, (Tel Aviv, Am Oved, 1993, Reprinted in 1994) - (Hebrew), 151 pp.

9/ JEVREJI IZ JUGOSLAVIJE – RATNI VOJNI ZAROBLJENICI U NEMAČKOJ (A Memorial of Yugoslav Jewish Prisoners of War, Half a Century after Liberation 1945-1995 (Tel Aviv, 1995) - (Hebrew, Serbo-Croatian, English), 94 & 51 pp.

10/ HAJ AMIN AND BERLIN (Tel Aviv, 1996) – (Hebrew), 287 pp.

11/ PITOM SHONA, PITOM ACHERET [Suddenly Different, Suddenly Another], The Story of a Jewish Girl in Occupied Yugoslavia], Two editions, (Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, 1998, Reprinted 1999), (Hebrew), 248 pp.

12/ ETMOL, HAYOM (Yesterday, today - Contribution of Jews from ex-Yugoslavia to Israel), (Association of Jews fromYugoslavia in Israel, Tel Aviv 1999) – (Hebrew & Serbo-Croation), 172 & 172 pp.

13/ DO KONAČNOG REŠENJA, Jevreji u Beogradu 1521-1942 [UNTIL THE FINAL SOLUTION, The Jews in Belgrade 1521-1942], (Beograd 2001), (Serbian), XXII & 472 pp.

14/ DO KONAČNOG REŠENJA – Jevreji u Srbiji [UNTIL THE FINAL SOLUTION - The Jews in Serbia], (Beograd 2002), (Serbian), XII & 353 pp.

15/ HADŽ-AMIN I BERLIN [HAJ-AMIN AND BERLIN], (Belgrade 2003), (Serbian), 331 pp.

16/ AD ‘HA’PITARON HA’SOFI’, Jehudim baBelgrad 1521-1942 [UNTIL ‘THE FINAL SOLUTION’, The Jews in Belgrade 1521-1942], (Tel-Aviv 2006), (Hebrew), 427 pp.

17/ UNTIL ‘THE FINAL SOLUTION’, The Jews in Belgrade 1521-1942, (English, Translated from Serbian by Paul Münch), (AVOTAYNU, Bergenfield, NJ, 2007), 476 pp.

18/ THE MUFTI OF JERUSALEM AND NATIONAL-SOCIALISM (English, Translated from Serbian by Paul Münch), (Belgrade 2007), 374 pp.

19/ TIDE AND WRECK: History of the Jews of Vardar Macedonia
(English, Translated from Serbian by Paul Münch), (AVOTAYNU, Bergenfield, NJ, 2008), 404 pp.

20/ DA SE NE ZABORAVI [Not to be Forgotten], (Belgrade 2008), (Serbian), 404 pp.

21/ ODJEDNOM DRUKČIJA, ODJEDNOM DRUGA [Suddenly different, Suddenly another], (Belgrade 2008), (Serbian), 198 pp.

22/ THE WHITE VIOLET [Ljubičica bela], (Belgrade 2009), (Serbian), 162 pp.

P R I Z E S
from the Federation of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia
Annual anonymous competitions - All works written in Serbo-Croatian:

1983 – TRAGEDIJA BEOGRADSKIH JEVREJA 1688. GODINE.
The Tragedy of Belgrade Jewry in 1688. First Prize

1984 – JEVREJSKE KNJIGE ŠTAMPANE U BEOGRADU 1837-1905.
Jewish books printed in Belgrade 1837-1905. First Prize

1985 – POLOŽAJ JEVREJA U SRBIJI U 19. VEKU.
The Situation of the Jews in Serbia in the 19th Century. First Prize

1986 – DUHOVNI VODJI BEOGRADSKOG JEVREJSTVA KROZ VEKOVE.
The Spiritual Leadership of the Belgrade Community in the Course of the Generations. First Prize

1987 – DRUŠTVA I USTANOVE BEOGRADSKOG JEVREJSTVA.
Societies and Organizations of Belgrade Jewry. Second Prize

1988 – JEVREJI U NIŠU.
The History of the Jews in the City of Nis. First Prize

1989 – JEVREJI U PIROTU.
The History of the Jews in the City of Pirot. Second Prize

1990 – RABIN JEHUDA BEN ŠLOMO HAJ ALKALAJ (1798-1878)
Rabbi Jehuda ben Shelomo Chay Alkalay Second Prize

1990 – DNEVNIK JEDNE JUDITE, BEOGRAD 1941.
A Diary of Judith – Belgrade 1941. Purchased by the Federation

1991 – JEVREJSKI SREDNJI TEOLOŠKI SEMINAR U SARAJEVU.
The Jewish Theological Seminary in Sarajevo 1928-1941. Second Prize

1993 – JEVREJI NA KOSOVU I U SANDŽAKU.
The Jews in Kossovo and in Sanjak. Purchased by the Federation

1996 – SINAGOGE U BEOGRADU.
Synagogues in Belgrade. Second Prize

1996 – ‘EVANGELISTA’.
‘Evangelist’ (Story). Purchased by the Federation

1997 – TRAGEDIJA TRANSPORTA KLADOVO-ŠABAC.
The Tragedy of the Kladovo-Shabatz Transport (1939-1941). First Prize

1997 – FIŠEKLIJA.
Fisheklia. Purchased by the Federation

1998 – JEVREJI U KULTURI JUGOSLAVIJE.
Jews in the Culture of Yugoslavia. Third Prize

1999 - (Together with Aleksandar Lebl, Belgrade): NUMERUS CLAUSUS U JUGOSLAVIJI, OKTOBRA 1940.
Numerus Clausus in Yugoslavia, October 1940. Second Prize

2000 – KONAČNO REŠENJE JEVREJSKOG PITANJA U BEOGRADU
The Final Solution of the Jewish Question in Belgrade 1941/42. First Prize

2000 - MOZES LOPEZ PEREIRA – BARON DIEGO D’AGUILAR.
Moses Lopez Pereira – Baron Diego d’Aguilar. Second Prize

2001 - MANJE JEVREJSKE ZAJEDNICE U SRBIJI
Minor Jewish Communities in Serbia. Third Prize

2001 - KINDERTRANSPORT IZ N.D.H. FEBRUARA 1943. GODINE.
‘Kindertransport’ from Croatia, February 1943. Purchased by the Federation

2002 - LEOPOLD PAVLE LEBL, PREHERCLIJANSKI CIONISTA.
Leopold Paul Lebl, Herzl’s unkle, a Pre-Herzlian Zionist, First Prize

2004 – JEVREJSKA IMENA - The Jewish names. Third Prize

2005 – JEVREJSKO LITERARNO STVARALAŠTVO U SREDNJOVEKOVNOJ ŠPANIJI
Jewish Literary Works in Medieval Spain Third Prize

2006 - ’BAR-GIORA’, Beč 1902-1927
‘BAR-GIORA’, Vienna 1902-1927 First Prize

2007 - RABIN JEHUDA IZ RAGUZE (1783-1879)
Rabbi Jehuda from Raguza (1783-1879) Third Prize

T R A N S L A T I O N S

Translations of Israeli Authors to Serbo-Croatian that were published in Yugoslavia in Literary Periodicals and were aired on Radio in the Below Publications and Radio Stations:

BILTEN Hitahdut Oley Yugoslavia (Tel-Aviv)
BILTEN Saveza jevrejskih opština Jugoslavije (Belgrade)
BILTEN Židovske Općine (Zagreb)
KADIMA (Beograd)
KNJIŽEVNE NOVINE (Beograd)
KNJIŽEVNA REC (Beograd)
KNJIŽEVNOST (Beograd)
KULTURE ISTOKA (Gornji Milanovac)
LETOPIS MATICE SRPSKE (Novi Sad)
MEZUZA (Zemun)
NOVI OMANUT (Zagreb)
OVDJE (Podgorica)
PISMO (Zemun)
POLITIKA (Beograd)
POVELJA (Kraljevo)
RADIO BEOGRAD (Beograd)
RADIO LJUBLJANA (Ljubljana)
REPUBLIKA (Zagreb)
RUKOVET (Subotica)

Names of Authors and Poets Translated:
(As transcribed in Serbo-Croatian)

Abaju Šlomo / Agnon Šmuel-Josef / Amihai Jehuda / Amir Aharon / Atar Tirca / Apelfeld Aharon / Avidan David / Ben-David Jaara / Ben-Ner Jichak / Ben-Šaul Moše / Beser Jakov / Bežerano Maja / Biton Erez / Gouri Lilian / Ejnat Amela / Eliraz Israel / Gilad Zerubavel / Grinberg Uri-Cvi / Hermeš Haim / Hurvic Jair / Jehošua Avraham B. / Kaspi Dan / Katan-Bencion Dina / Lapid Šulamit / Lešem Giora / Meged Ejal / Necer Eli / Orland Jakov / Oz Amos / Pagis Dan / Pinhas-Koen Hava / Rab Ester / Rabin Ozer / Rajh Ašer / Sened Jonat and Aleksander / Slilat Tami / Somek Roni / Šaked Geršon / Šalev Meir / Švajd Eliezer / Vizeltir Meir / Volah Jona / Zamir Israel
(The list until September 2004)

A R T I C L E S

X-RAYS IN THEIR EIGHTIES, Mada, Vol. 20, 6 (1975/6), pp. 257-258 (Hebrew).

LEOPOLD PAUL LEBEL, HERZL’S UNCLE – A PRE-HERZL FORGOTTEN ZIONIST, Yalkut 5708-5738, Research and Studies, and Chapters of Memories, The Yugoslavian Immigrant Association (1979), pp. 13-41 (Hebrew).

Book review: ON THE JEWS OF YUGOSLAVIA: Harriet Pass Friedenreich, The Jews of Yugoslavia – A Quest for Community (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1979) in Pe’amim, 8 (1981), pp. 115-121 (Hebrew).

AN EXHIBITION OF THE JEWISH PRESS IN YUGOSLAVIA - 1888-1941, Pe’amim 12 (1982), pp. 140-142 (Hebrew).

(With Dr. Zvi Rotem): THE WRITINGS OF JEWISH SEPHARDIC AUTHORS IN MACEDONIAN LANGUAGE, 223-225 and THE WRITINGS OF JEWISH SEPHARDIC AUTHORS IN SERBO-CROATIAN LANGUAGE“, pp. 255-275, in Itzhak Betsalel, ed., The Writings of Sephardi and Oriental Jewish Authors in Languages Other than Hebrew, A Bibliographical Survey of Belles Lettres in the Twentieth Century, Vol. I (Tel Aviv University and the Center for the Integration of the Oriental Jewish Heritage, the Ministry of Education and Culture, 1982). (Hebrew).

YAAKOV BEN MOSHE CHAY ALTARATZ (1863-1919), One of the Wonderful and Tragic Personalities of Belgrade Jewry, Bamaaracha, Issue 255 (February 1982), pp.11 & 13 (Hebrew).

MONASTIR – A COMMUNITY WHICH IS NO MORE, Bamaaracha, Issue 258 (May 1982), pp. 15 & 29 (Hebrew).

ALBANIA 1941-1945 – When the Jews of the Balkans Were Sent to the Death Camps, Albania was an Island of Righteousness in the European Hell, Bamaaracha, Issue 268 (March 1983), pp. 16-17 (Hebrew)

YAAKOV BEN MOSHE CHAY ALTARATZ, Sephardi Heritage (Winter 1983), pp. 30-31 (English).

THE TRAGEDY OF BELGRADE JEWRY IN THE YEAR 1688, Shevet Veam, Second Series V (X), October 1984, pp. 110-128 – (Hebrew).

Gila Sivan (Pen Name), THE HOBBY - HISTORY, Davar, Olam Yehudi, 5.4.1985, p. 22 (Hebrew).

Dr. Avraham Sadikario, THEY ARE NO MORE, A Poem (Translation from Macedonian), Bamaaracha, Issue 296 (June 1985), p. 15 (Hebrew).

Book review: HEROES WITHOUT MONUMENTS: Danilo Kish, A Tombstone for Boris Davidovitch. Translated into Hebrew by Dina Katan Ben-Zion (Tel Aviv, Adam, 1985) in Iton 77, Issues 66-67 (July-August 1985), p. 8 (Hebrew).

DR. KALMI BARUCH, One of the Greatest Experts in his Generation in the Judeo-Spanish Language (40 Years since his Death)”, Bamaaracha, Issue 307 (April 1986), p. 31 (Hebrew).

THE HOLOCAUST OF YUGOSLAV JEWRY - The Communities in Macedonia, Pirot, and the Kossovo Region, Pe’amim 27 (1986), pp. 62-75 (Hebrew).

TIDE AND WRECK - From an Idea to a Reality’, Bamaaracha, Issue 321 (June 321), p. 32 (Hebrew).

KADISH OF THE MOURNERS – EN ROUTE TO TREBLINKA – A Lamentation for the Macedonian Jews that Died in the Gas Chambers in March 1943, BaMaaracha, Issue 321 (June 1987), p. 33 (Hebrew).

Book review: Enver Redzic, Muslimansko autonomastvo i 13. SS-Divizija –Autonomija Bosne i Hercegovine i Hitlerov Treci Rajh (Sarajevo, Svjetlost, 1987) in Pe’amim 37 (1988), p. 156 (Hebrew).

Articles in Zvi Loker, ed., PINKAS HAKEHILOT – YUGOSLAVIA, Encyclopedia of the Jewish Settlements from their Founding until after the Holocaust of World War Two (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1988), (Hebrew):
Belgrade, pp. 55-84.
Bitola, pp. 43-55.
Leskovac, pp. 168-169.
Nish, pp. 196-200.
Pirot, pp. 277-280.
Prishtina, pp. 281-284.
Shtip, pp. 305-308.
Skopje, pp. 256-272.
Smederevo, pp. 241-242.
Zemun (partially), pp. 153-156.

“LOVESICK FOR JERUSALEM” – RABBI YEHUDA ALKALAI – The Political and Communal Context of his Activity, Pe’amim 40 (1989), pp. 21-48 (Hebrew).

POVIJESNA TRAGANJA – (Historical Studies):
a/ PISMO SARAJEVSKIH JEVREJA IZ LOGORA U OSIJEKU 1697 (The Request of the Jews of Sarajevo to Redeem Slaves in 1697);
b/ KO JE BIO JUCHAK CVI? (Who was Yitzhak Zvi?), Bilten – Zidovska opcina Zagreb, 12 (1989), p. 13 (Croatian).

BOSNJACI U “CARSKOM GRADU” (Muslims from Bosnia in Caesaria), Iseljenicki Almanah 1990, Sarajevo, 1990, pp. 84-87 (Serbo-Croatian).

“IN THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE” – Autobiographical Story (About the Yugoslavian Gulag for Women), Iton 77, Issue 130 (November 1990), pp. 46-47, 51 (Hebrew).

DOES BELGRADE RESEMBLE JERUSALEM?, Cathedra, Yad Ben-Zvi, Jerusalem, 58 (1990), pp. 70-73 (Hebrew).

THE WHITE VIOLET, Dimui, Periodical for Jewish Literature and Culture 4 (1992), pp. 41-44 (Hebrew).

TRAGEDIJA BEOGRADSKIH JEVREJA 1688. GODINE (The Tragedy of the Jews of Belgrade in the Year 1688) Zbornik 6 (Jewish Studies VI), Belgrade (1992), pp. 183-200 (Serbian).

HEBREW PRINTING IN BELGRADE 1837-1905, Pe’amim 52 (1992), pp. 116-139 (Hebrew).

JUDENKOMMISSAR EGON (Belgrad 1941), Bilten – Zidovska opcina Zagreb, 28-29 (1993), p. 15 (Croatian).

RABIN JEHUDA ALKALAJ (1798-1878), Mezuza 1, Casopis za jevrejsku knjizevnost, Zemun, (1993), pp. 224-236 (Serbian).

SABTAJ BEN JOSEF DJAEN (1883-1946), Mezuza 2, Casopis za jevrejsku knjizevnost, Zemun, (1994), pp. 214-218 (Serbian).

KINDERTRANSPORT IZ NDH 1943, Bilten HOJ 4 (1994), pp. 15-18 (Serbian).

HEBREW IN THE DESTROYED MONASTIR: RABBI SHABETAI DJAEN – The History of a Rabbi, Revolutionary and Zionist Playwright in Ladino”, Dimui, 11 (Winter 1996), pp. 22-30 (Hebrew).

TWO CALAMITIES AGAINST THE JEWS OF RAGUSA, Dimui 13b (Summer 1997), pp. 22-28 (Hebrew).

SINAGOGE U BEOGRADU (Synagogues in Belgrade), Zbornik 7 (Jewish Studies VII), Belgrade (1997), pp. 80-101 (Serbian).

BLUE-WHITE – Scouting and Pioneering Youth, a Jewish Youth Movement in the Yugoslavian Kingdom 1919-1941, Yalkut III, Association of Jews fromYugoslavia in Israel, Jerusalem/Tel Aviv, (1997), pp. 49-67 (Hebrew).

HITLER AND THE MUFTI, Diokan (Portrait) – Makor Rishon, 40 / 20 Nissan 5798 - 16.4.1998, pp. 26-29 (Hebrew).

Book review: WHO IS YUGOSLAV JEW? On the Book: Paul Benjamin Gordiejew, Voices of Yugoslav Jewry, State University of New York Press, NY 1999, XVI & 479 pp. Pe’amim 82 (1999), pp. 179-183 (Hebrew).

THE HOLOCAUST OF YUGOSLAV JEWRY, Bishvil Hazikaron, Yad Vashem, No. 33/1999, pp. 41-45 (Hebrew).

RESPONSAS – THE RABBINICAL LITERATURE OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS AS AUTHENTICAL SOURCE, Novi Omanut, Zagreb, 42-43/2000, pp. 8-10 (Croatian).

MOSES LOPEZ PEREIRA – BARON DIEGO D’AGUILAR, Zbornik 8 (Jewish Studies VIII), Belgrade (2003), pp. 337-370 (Serbian).

Only until 2003.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License