ARN-YANKEV GRINBERG (AHARON-YAAKOV GREENBERG)

ARN-YANKEV GRINBERG (AHARON-YAAKOV GREENBERG) (March 15 [or February 20], 1900-April 2, 1963)

            He was born in Sokołów Podlaski, Poland, into a Hassidic family which traced its pedigree back to the Maharal of Prague.  He studied in religious elementary school, yeshiva, and secular subject matter with private tutors.  He was a disciple of the Sokolover rebbe.  From his early years, he was an active leader of the Mizrachi youth movement.  For a time he was chairman of the Land of Israel office in Poland.  From 1934 he was himself living in Israel.  He was a member of the leadership of the religious labor party “Hapoel hamizraḥi” (Mizrachi workers), on whose behalf he visited Europe and the United States.  He was a Knesset deputy, a member of the Zionist Action Committee, and a member of the international “Tora veavoda” (Torah and labor).  He began publishing articles on Jewish, national, religious, and labor questions in: Dos yidishe lebn (Jewish life) in Warsaw (1922).  He contributed to: Unzer shtime (Our voice) in Warsaw (1926); Der veg (The way) in Paris; and Hatsofe (The spectator) in Israel.  He also contributed to Morgn zhurnal (Morning journal) in New York and to Yiddish and Hebrew periodical publications of the Mizrachi movement throughout the world.  He edited: Dos yidishe lebn in 1922; Unzer shtime in 1926 (together with Dr. Sh. Federbush and A. Nayfeld); and Hatsofe.  His essay, “Portretn fun di gaystike firer un manhigim fun mizrakhi” (Portraits of the spiritual leaders of Mizrachi)—in Unzer shtime, Warsaw (1926)—was a contribution to the history of the Mizrachi movement.

Sources: Biblyografisher yorbukh fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbook from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1927); D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 4 (Tel Aviv, 1950), p. 1971.