Moishe Lewis

Who was Moishe Lewis?

Moishe Lewis was a Jewish labour activist in eastern Europe and Canada. A tanner by trade, he was born and raised in the Svisloch shtetl in the Russian Empire. Moishe Losz was the chairman of the Jewish Labour Bund in Svisloch The Bund was both an active political party and a Jewish, Socialist labour movement. It was preoccupied in changing the system that was at the roots of low pay and dangerous, harsh working conditions.

When the Russian Civil War and the Polish-Soviet War were at their fiercest, in the summer of 1920, Poland invaded, and the Bolshevik Red Army counter-attacked. Svisloch was on the Polish-Russian border and was occupied by the Soviets July 1920. Moishe Losz openly opposed the Bolsheviks and would later be jailed by them for his opposition. He barely escaped with his life. When the Polish army recaptured Svisloch on August 25, 1920, they executed five Jewish citizens as “spies.” This was a false charge and was more of a tactic to keep the locals scared and discourage them from participating in counter insurgency. Seeing that he wasn't safe under either regime, and the prospects for the future of his family were bleak, he left for Canada in May 1921, to work in his brother-in law's clothing factory in Montreal.