LEYZER-LIPE YOFE (ELIEZER LIPA JOFFE)

LEYZER-LIPE YOFE (ELIEZER LIPA JOFFE) (January 12, 1882-September 18, 1952)

            He was born in a village in Chotin (Hotin) district, Bessarabia.  He received a strictly religious education and later graduated from a technical school in Odessa.  In 1904 he came to the United States on a Zionist mission.  He was a cofounder of the Zionist associations: Hateḥiya (Revival), Haikar Hayehudi (The Jewish farmer), and the American division of Haḥaluts (The pioneer).  He was also a teacher and instructor in the first “Hakhshara” (Training for agricultural emigrants to Palestine) group in California.  In late 1910 he moved to Israel.  He published an appeal for a youth aliya from Russia to Israel in Hamelits (The advocate) (Odessa-St. Petersburg) in 1902, and he later published articles and “Letters from the Land of Israel” in: Fohn (Banner) in New York (1906); Idisher kempfer (Jewish fighter) in Philadelphia-New York; and Dos yidishe folk (The Jewish people) in Vilna; among other serials.  He edited the agricultural trade journals Gan hayarok (Vegetable garden) and Hasade (The field) in Tel Aviv.  He authored the following books (among others): Yesod moshve ovdim (Foundation of the settlements of workers) (Jaffa, 1919), 80 pp.; Gidul yerakot (Growing vegetables) (1921); the historical drama Befaame hakilayon (In times of the destruction) (Tel Aviv, 1926), 168 pp.; and the two-volume Kitve eliezer yofe (Writings of Eliezer Yofe) (Tel Aviv, 1947).  He died in Afula, Israel.

Sources: D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the founders and builders of the yishuv), vol. 1 (Tel Aviv, 1947), pp. 395-96; Shpizman, in Geshikhte fun der tsienistisher arbeter-bavegung fun tsofn-amerike (History of the Zionist labor movement in North America), vol. 1 (New York, 1955), pp. 65, 66, 214, 216, 233; Y. Mikhali, in Asufot (Tel Aviv) (December 1959), pp. 107-10.

Khayim Leyb Fuks