SHLOYME KAPLANSKI

SHLOYME KAPLANSKI (March 6, 1884-December 7, 1950)

            He was born in Bialystok.  He studied in religious elementary school, public school, and high school.  He graduated as an engineer from the Vilna polytechnic.  He was a theoretician of Labor Zionism and one of its leaders.  He took on important positions in the Zionist world movement.  From 1932 he was director of the Haifa technical school.  He wrote in Russian, German, and Hebrew.  In Yiddish he also contributed to: Arbayter-tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper) in Warsaw and Czernowitz; Arbayter-vort (Workers’ word) in Cracow (1921); Di naye gezelshaft (The new society) in Warsaw (1927); and elsewhere.  He published books in several languages; in Yiddish: Doktor benyomen theodor hertsl, zayn lebn un zayne maysim farn yudishen folk (Dr. Benjamin Theodor Herzl, his life and deeds on behalf of the Jewish people), under the pen name Elye Ben Berakhel (Podgórze-Kraków: Zionist People’s Library, 1904), 61 pp.; Vos iz azoyns natsyonale oyṭonomye? (What is this national autonomy?) (Warsaw: Arbayter heym, 1918), 15 pp.; Vifil menshen kon oyfnemen erets-yisroel (How many men the land of Israel can take in) (Warsaw: Zionist Organization in Poland, 1920), 24 pp.; Di kolonizatorishe oyfnamsfeikeyt fun erets-yisroel (The land of Israel’s capacity to take in colonizers) (Warsaw, 1931), 23 pp.; Fun onzog tsu farvirklekhung (From promise to realization) (Warsaw, 1932), 416 pp., appearing in 1950 under the title Ḥazon vehagshama (Vision and fulfillment), 517 pp.  He translated D. Pasmanik’s Di theorye un praktike fun’m poyle-tsienizmus (The theory and practice of Labor Zionism) (Cracow, 1906), 110 pp.  He died in Haifa.

Sources: Getzel Kressel, Leksikon hasifrut haivrit (Handbook of Hebrew literature), vol. 2 (Merḥavya, 1967); Sefer haishim (Biographical dictionary) (Tel Aviv, 1936/1937), p. 440; L. Shpizman, Geshtaltn (Images) (Buenos Aires, 1962), pp. 68-75; Y. Zerubavel, Geshtaltn (Images) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1967), pp. 60-72; Berl Loker, Mikitov ad yerushalayim (From Kitov to Jerusalem) (Jerusalem, 1969/1970), pp. 23, 74-92; M. Zinger, Shelomo kaplanski (Shelomo Kaplansky) (Jerusalem, 1971); A. Rays, Shelomo kaplanski (Shelomo Kaplansky) (Tel Aviv, 1972)

Ruvn Goldberg