YISROEL LONDON

YISROEL LONDON (1906-1941)

            He was born in Kalvarye (Kalvarija), Lithuania.  He graduated from a Tarbut school and the law faculty of Kovno University.  He was one of the pioneers of the Haḥaluts (The pioneer) movement in Lithuania.  Between the two world wars, he was among the leaders of the Zionist socialist party in Lithuania.  Over the years 1924-1927, he was its secretary general.  He practiced as a lawyer in Vilkomir (Ukmergė), but also worked as a Hebrew teacher and school leader.  He was chairman of the Vilkomir Jewish community council (1935-1940) and manager of the Jewish hospital.  He wrote articles on Zionism, socialism, and Jewish education in Yidishe shtime (Jewish voice) in Kovno and in the organ of the Zionist socialist party in Lithuania, Undzer veg (Our way), for which over a certain period of time he also served as editor.  He spent 1940-1941 in numerous ghettoes, helping the Jewish refugees and victims of Hitlerism.  He died in Vilkomir, Lithuania.

Sources: Written information from London’s brother-in-law, Y. Rabinovitsh in Montreal, Canada; oral information from Yoysef Gar and Berl Kohen in New York.

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