Jakub Egit (27 September 1908 – 1996) was a Polish Jewish leader. He was born in Boryslaw, Austria-Hungary. His parents, Marek and Shaindel, and his siblings, Marcus, Rachel, Reisl, Jonas and Genia, were all killed between 1943 and 1945.
In 1945, Egit began a project to create a settlement of 50,000 Jews in Dzierà ¼oniów County (formerly Reichenbach), incl. the town of Dzierà ¼oniów (the peak number of Jews in Drobniszew reached 17,800 in November 1946), Bielawa, Pieszyce, Pià Âawa Górna, etc., a Recovered Territory near Wrocà Âaw in Silesia, People's Republic of Poland. Egit wanted to make the former German territory into a Jewish settlement. Initially, with Soviet Communist support, Egit's plan went well; starting with a small group of concentration camp survivors, the settlement grew to encompass Jewish schools, hospitals, kibbutzim, orphanages and a book publisher in Wrocà Âaw. However, in 1948 the Communists withdrew their support. Egit was put in jail and the majority of Dzierà ¼oniów's citizens subsequently emigrated to Israel.
From his release in 1950, Egit was editor of J'idysz Buch in Warsaw. In 1957 he emigrated to Canada, where he became a prominent member of Canada's Jewish community. In 1991, he published his autobiography Grand Illusion.
Egit died in Florida in 1996.