Shakne Epshtein

Shakne Epshtein (1883 in Iwye – 27 July 1945) was a Jewish-Russian journalist and the secretary and editor of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC)'s newspaper, Eynikayt (Unity). Solomon Mikhoels, the chairman of JAC and Epshtein approached Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet foreign minister and a Stalin henchman, with an idea to create a Jewish republic in the Crimea or in the Volga area (in place of the dismantled Volga Germans republic). Both ideas were rejected due to the growing state sponsored anti-semitism and Stalin's distrust of Molotov. Epshtein died in 1945.