YOYSEF GRAVITSKI

YOYSEF GRAVITSKI (November 8, 1900-December 15, 1955)

            In his last years, he called himself Yoysef Regev.  He was born in Warsaw.  He received both a Jewish and a general education.  He graduated from Krinsky’s high school in Warsaw and studied political science in Vienna.  He joined the Zionist movement at an early age.  He was one of the founders and general secretary of the Youth Zionist party in Poland.  Over the years 1921-1932, he was a member of the central committee and general secretary of the Zionist Organization in Poland and a delegate to the All-Zionist Congresses over these same years.  He was a member, 1928-1932, of the Warsaw Jewish community council.  He left for Israel in 1932, and there he was active in the Zionist movement, primarily in the realm of journalistic propaganda.  He was director of the press division, 1934-1948, of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem and chief editor of the Israeli telegraphic agency Palkor.  He was the founder in 1933 and first chairman of the Hebrew Journalists’ Union in Tel Aviv.  From 1948 until his death, he was director of press information for the Israeli government.

            He began publishing articles on Jewish matters in the anthology Gegenvart un tsukunft (Past and future) (Warsaw, 1918).  He contributed to Bafrayung (Liberation) in Warsaw in 1921, on whose editorial board he also served.  Over the years 1923-1932, he served as diplomatic correspondent for Haynt (Today) in Warsaw, for which until WWII he wrote correspondence pieces from Israel.  He also wrote pieces for: Parizer haynt (Paris today), Haolam (The world), Hapoel hatsair (The young worker), and Davar (Word), among others.  He was editor of the daily newspaper Omer in Tel Aviv, and of Tsienistishe bleter (Zionist pages), with Yitskhok Grinboym, in Warsaw (1930-1932).  He published a monograph in Hebrew on David Ben-Gurion (Jerusalem, 1950), 47 pp.  Among his pen names: Regev, Ego, Yosef Ezof, Y. G-n, and Yosef.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: obituary notice in Forverts (New York) (December 16, 1955); Yisrael Ritov, in Hapoel hatsair (Tel Aviv) (January 10, 1956); Ḥ. Neeman, in Davar (Tel Aviv) (December 15, 1955); Yitsḥak Grinboym, Sefer hashana shel haitonaim (Newspaper yearbook) (Tel Aviv, 1955).