YEKHIEL HALPERN

YEKHIEL HALPERN (November 11, 1896-1984)

            He was born in Jędrzejów, Kielce district, Poland, the son of the playwright and novelist Yehoyneson Halpern.  Until age twelve he attended religious elementary school, later studying at a middle school in Kielce.  Over the years 1917-1919, he was a student at Cracow University, initially in medicine and later history and philosophy.  From 1920 he was studying political science at the University of Vienna, and in 1928 he received his doctoral degree for a dissertation entitled “State Civil Servants and the Social Question.”  In 1910 he became one of the founders of the Zionist Organization in Jędrzejów.  He was a member, 1916-1917, of Hashomer Hatsair (Young pioneers).  Already in his student days, he was chairman of the central committee of the Zionist socialist group Tseire-Tsiyon (Young Zionists) in western Galicia.  He chaired the general Zionist student organization “Hashaḥar” (The dawn) and was a member of the central committee of the Zionist Organization in western Galicia.

            He began writing while still quite young.  He published his first article in 1917 (in German) in Wiener Morgenpost (Vienna morning mail).  In 1919 he was a member of the editorial board of the Zionist daily newspaper in Polish, Nasz Przegląd (Our review).  He founded and served as the first editor of the Tseire-Tsiyon daily, Di tsayt (The times), and he contributed to the Zionist monthly in Polish, Morija, miesięcznik literacko-społeczny poświęcony żydowskiej myśli religijnej (Moriah, monthly literary society devoted to Jewish religious thought).  In that same year in Warsaw, he placed pieces in the organ of Tseire-Tsiyon, Bafrayung (Liberation), and in the daily Polish Jewish Nasz kurier (Our courier).  Later, in Vienna, he was a co-editor of the Labor Zionist newspaper Unzer vort (Our word) and a contributor to the Italian newspaper Yisrael (Israel), edited by M. Beylinson.  In 1923 he was editor in Lemberg of the Labor Zionist Der yidisher arbeter (The Jewish worker).  He returned to Warsaw in 1924, served as secretary of the right Labor Zionists, and edited their organ Arbeter-vort (Labor’s word) as well as being their agent at the presidium of the Land of Israel Office and in the director’s council of the United Jewish Appeal.  He was one of the founders of Zionist socialist youth movement, leader of the Committee for a Laboring Palestine, and was one of the founders of the League for a Laboring Palestine in Poland.  In 1925 he founded and edited the socialist monthly Di naye gezelshaft (The new society) which appeared over the course of two years.  With the discontinuation of this periodical, he joined the Bund, and he contributed to the Bundist Naye folkstsaytung (New people’s newspaper) and the Bundist monthly Unzer tsayt (Our time).  He subsequently left the Bund and returned to the Labor Zionist movement, renewed the publication and edited Di naye gezelshaft, was a member of the presidium of the organization’s central committee, and he was an editorial board member of its daily newspaper Dos vort (The word), in which he wrote editorials and theoretical treatises on Zionism, socialism, and statehood.  Among his books: Got-zukhenishn fun der moderner inteligents (Modern intellectuals search for God) (Warsaw: 1931), 187 pp.; Der revolt fun a goles-folk, komunizm in yisroel (The revolt of a dispersed people, Communism in Israel) (Buenos Aires, 1954), 257 pp., translated from Hebrew by Shmuel Naum, Y. Rinkevitsh, and M. Maydanek, under the editorship of Y. Palatitski.

            In 1938 he made aliya to Israel, worked in vineyards and orchards, and in his free time wrote for the Hebrew press.  Because of illness he had to give up physical labor.  He moved to Tel Aviv and became a contributor to Davar (Word).  He was editor, 1942-1943, of Hege (Helm), a daily newspaper with vowel markings.  In 1943 he renewed Kuntres (Pamphlet), organ of Mapai, and he was its editor until 1945.  He was living in Israel.

Sources: D. Tidhar, Entsiklopedyah hachalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 4 (Tel Aviv, 1950); “Mi vemi beitonut” (Who’s who in the press), in Sefer hashana shel haitonaim (Journalists' annual) (Tel Aviv, 1949-1950); M. Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 3 (Montreal, 1958), p. 474.

Zaynvl Diamant