TSVI HELER

TSVI HELER (August 12, 1899-1977?)

            He was born in Stryj, eastern Galicia.  He studied in religious elementary school, in a Polish high school, and in a Hebrew evening course.  He later studied medicine, political economy, and law in Vienna and Brussels.  He received the title “doctor of jurisprudence” from Lemberg University.  From his early years he was active in the Zionist movement.  He served in the Austrian military, 1913-1918, and took part in WWI.  He later lived for a time in Vienna.  He returned to Galicia in 1919 and settled in Chortkov (Chortkiv), where he directed the local Zionist Youth organization.  Over the years 1921-1925, he was the secretary-general of the Galician Zionist Union, and at the same time chair of the United Zionist Youth Party in Galicia.  He was selected in 1922 from the Tarnopol region to the Polish Sejm.  He was also a member of the Jewish Agency.  From 1925 he was living in Israel where he was active in community life.  He began writing in the Zionist daily Viner morgntsaytung (Vienna morning newspaper) in 1918, and from that point in time he wrote articles for: Bafrayung (Liberation), Folk un land (People and nation), Haynt (Today), and Moment (Moment)—in Warsaw; Tsayt (Times) and Erd un arbet (Land and work) in Vilna; Frimorgn (Morning) in Riga; Lodzer tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper); Lemberger togblat (Lemberg daily newspaper) and Der morgn (The morning) in Lemberg; and in the Polish Jewish press.  In Israel he wrote for Davar (Word), Hapoel-hatsair (The young worker), and Shurot (Ranks)—in Tel Aviv.  In more recent years he has been active in Mapai (Labor Party).  He was a judge in the city court in Tel Aviv.

Sources: D. Tidhar, Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the founders and builders of Israel), vol. 1 (Tel Aviv, 1947), pp. 2687-88; N. Meltser, Pirke galitsiya (Chapters from Galicia) (Tel Aviv, 1957).