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Eternal Exile

Shivah Stars

by
Marc Tracy
November 17, 2011
Ilya Zhitomirskiy.(David Goldman/NYT)
Ilya Zhitomirskiy.(David Goldman/NYT)

Each week, we select the most interesting Jewish obituary. This week’s section is dotted with Jewish names: New York City Opera impresario Irwin Schneiderman (father of N.Y. attorney general Eric); breast-cancer activist Evelyn H. Lauder; Irving Franklin, inventor of the modern baseball batting glove.

But it seems appropriate to remember Ilya Zhitomirskiy, who was found dead Saturday in San Francisco, likely the victim of suicide, at 22 (I know). With three friends from NYU, he created Diaspora*, a social network intended to be the open source antithesis of Facebook—and what could be more Jewish than that (and that name!)? Born in Moscow to two mathematicians, Zhitomirskiy was, according to Diaspora* mentor Eben Moglen, the most idealistic of the site’s founders.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.