ARN TSIZLING (AHARON ZISLING)

ARN TSIZLING (AHARON ZISLING) (February 26, 1901-January 16, 1964)

            He was born in a village in Minsk Province, Byelorussia.  His father Tsvi-Menakhem, a rabbi, did not wish to earn his bread from serving as a rabbi; he took a parcel in land as a renter from Count Potocki and became a farmer, initially near Pinsk and later near Slonim.  Tsizling received a Jewish education.  In 1914 he moved with his parents to the land of Israel.  He graduated from the Herzliya High School in Tel Aviv.  From his student years, he was active in the pioneer movement.  He cofounded and helped build the Kibbutz “Ein Ḥarod,” and he remained a member of the kibbutz until his death.  On several occasions, he traveled from Israel to Poland, mainly as he was active in Youth Aliya and Pioneers.  From 1936 he remained in Israel.  For a time he served as secretary of the Jerusalem Workers’ Council.  He was among the top leadership of the Hagana and the Palmach.  He was a member of the delegation to the United Nations in New York.  At the time of the split in Mapai (Workers’ Party in the Land of Israel), he went over to Aḥdut haavoda (Union of labor [i.e., Labor Zionists]) and served as its representative in the Knesset, and minister of agriculture in the first government of the state of Israel.  From 1920 he published articles on youth issues, national and labor problems, and political essays (in reworking his Yiddish style of writing, he would get help from others) in: Bafrayung (Liberation), Bafrayung-arbeter shtime (Liberation-workers’ voice), Haḥaluts (The pioneer) and its Yiddish supplement Haatid (The future), and others, in Warsaw; Arbeter-tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper) and Dos vort (The word), among others, in Lodz; Bafrayung and Der morgn (The morning) in Munich; Unzer veg (our way) in New York; Arbeter vort (Workers’ word) in Paris; Folksblat (People’s newspaper), Al hamishmar (On guard), Davar (Word), Hapoal hatsayir (The young worker), and Bemifne (At the turn), among others, in Israel.  He died in Ein Ḥarod, Israel.

Sources: D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 3 (Tel Aviv, 1949), p. 1571; Yisroel Shayn, Bibliografye fun oysgabes aroysgegebn durkh di arbeter-parteyen in poyln in di yorn 1918-1939 (Bibliography of publications brought out by the workers’ parties in Poland in the years 1919-1939) (Warsaw: Yidish-bukh, 1963), see index; G. Kantorovitsh, in Yorbukh (New York) 1 (1964), p. 155; L. Shpizman, Khalutsim in poyln (Pioneers in Poland), vol. 3 (New York, 1963), see index; obituary notices in the Yiddish press and throughout the world.

Khayim Leyb Fuks