Jacques Doubinsky (1889-1959)

Born in the Ukraine on 26 March 1889 into a family of Jewish artisans, Doubinsky fled to Bulgaria in 1924 – the Cheka were after him – and there was involved in an attempted uprising aimed at overthrowing the fascist regime that was being introduced. After imprisonment and torture, he fled from Bulgaria and made it to France where he turned his hand to various jobs: assembly-line worker, stitching shoes, garment-maker, cloth designer. Together with his wife Rosa he was a member of the committee for assisting exiles and also looked after the Autodidacte Library run by the Parisian Jewish anarchist group, of which he was secretary. Moving to the USA after the war he helped Boris Yelensky to distribute the aid that the American movement sent out to the French Jewish anarchists. An active member of the Friends of Voline to which we owe the publication of The Unknown Revolution, he, along with David and Golda Stetner was active in the Free Thought group. At the same time he served on the committee to aid Bulgarian antifascists and published a pamphlet entitled Bulgaria, The New Spain and was active in welcoming the Bulgarian refugees fleeing from the advent of Communist rule. Having moved back to Europe, it was on a trip to the United States in 1955 he met up again with Rudolf Rocker, carrying back his last message. He died on 18 February 1959.

From: Bollettino Archivio G. Pinelli No 15, Milan, April 2000 . Translated by: Paul Sharkey.