SHIYE-HESHL FARBSHTEYN

SHIYE-HESHL FARBSHTEYN (February 20, 1870-August 28, 1948)

            He was born in Warsaw, Poland.  He received both a Jewish and a general education.  He graduated from a commercial school.  From his student years, he was active in Jewish community life.  He served as a delegate to the first Zionist congress.  He was later president for many years of the Zionist Organization, of the Mizrachi party, and of the central Jewish merchants’ association, among other organizations.  For a time he was a representative of the Joint Distribution Committee.  Over the years 1919-1930, he was a deputy in the Polish Sejm and a member of the Warsaw City Council and Jewish community council.  In 1931 he made aliya to the land of Israel, and until his death he served as chairman of the Jewish community of Jerusalem and a member of the executive of the Jewish Agency.  He published articles on Zionism, as well as general Jewish and general issues, in: Yidishes tageblat (Jewish daily newspaper), Haynt (Today), Handls-velt (Business world), Mizrakhi-shtime (Voice of Mizrachi), Mizrakhi-velt (Mizrachi world), Di idishe shtime (The Jewish voice), and Hamizraḥi (The Mizrachi), among others, in Warsaw.  He died in Jerusalem.

Sources: Dr. R. Feldshuh, Yidishe gezelshaftlekher leksikon (Jewish community handbook) (Warsaw, 1939), pp. 170, 184, 832; D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 1 (Tel Aviv, 1947), p. 259; Megilat haadamah, leyovel hakeren hakayemet leyisrael (The land charter, the jubilee of the Jewish National Fund) (Jerusalem, 1950/1951), pp. 282-84; Yosef Heftman, Am veadam (Nation and man) (Tel Aviv, 1956), p. 415.

Khayim Leyb Fuks