Moshe Levin - Biography

Moshe Levin (1897–1943), alias 'Batlan' and 'Elisha', was a Jewish socialist. He was a member of the Jewish Communist Party (Poalei Zion) in Russia, before arriving in Palestine in 1919, where he joined the Socialist Workers Party. Levin contested on the 1920 Histadrut election on the list of the party, under the alias 'L. Elisha'. When the party was divided in 1922, he became a leader of the Palestinian Communist Party, along with Menachem 'Oskar' Finkelstein. After the reunification of the party into the Palestine Communist Party, he voiced opposition towards the 'Arabization' efforts inside the party. In 1928 he was deported to Poland. During the Second World War, he shifted his residence to the Soviet Union.