Esther Barsel [SEP] date of death
Esther Barsel
Esther Barsel (born 17 October 1924, in Raguva, Lithuania; died 6 October 2008, in Johannesburg) was a South African political activist and long-standing member of the South African Communist Party (SACP). She was a member of both her local African National Congress branch and the SACP's Johannesburg Central Branch.
Biography.
Biography Background.
Barsel was daughter of Joseph Levin of Kubelake from Ukraine and Sonia Garenblumaite of Raguva from Lithuania. Joseph Levin said he was escaping pogroms in Ukraine when
in about 1936. They then moved to Johannesburg.
Biography Political career.
Esther was an early participant in the Liberation Struggle against Apartheid, joining the SACP at the age of fourteen.
Esther worked as a secretary / bookkeeper for Friends of the Soviet Union where she met Hymie Barsel, the coordinator of the project. They married in Johannesburg on 4 December 1945. They travelled the country together promotingKarl Marx.
Hymie Barsel was accused in the 1956 Treason Trial. A group of 156 black and white activists - including