YISROEL RITOV

YISROEL RITOV (April 21, 1895-July 19, 1976)

            He was born in Osipovitsh (Asipovichy), Byelorussia.  He studied in religious elementary school and in the Lide (Lida) Yeshiva.  He studied law in Ekaterinoslav.  He was active in Zionist Youth in Russia and from 1921 in Poland.  In 1932 he settled in the land of Israel.  He was a member of the central Zionist agency.  He wrote articles on Zionism, cooperatives, and other topics for: Bafrayung (Liberation), Haynt (Today), and Dos vort (The word) in Warsaw; and Folksblat (People’s newspaper) in Tel Aviv; among other serials.  He edited party publications in Yiddish.  He authored the pamphlet: Velt-kongres fun poylishe idn (World congress of Polish Jews) (Tel Aviv, 1969), 42 pp.  From Hebrew he translated: P. Shifman’s Eynglishe deklaratsye (England’s declaration) (Ekaterinoslav: Rayon-komitet fun der tsienistisher organizatsye, 1917), 12 pp.; In binyen hakahole (In the community building) (Ekaterinoslav, 1918), 26 pp.; Yosef Shprintsak’s In vort un in shrift (In word and in writing) (Buenos Aires: Kiem, 1955), 399 pp.  He was also among the translators of Zalman Shazar’s Likhtike perzenlekhkeytn (Illumined personalities [original: Or ishim]) (Buenos Aires: Kiem, 1963), 297 pp.  In Hebrew he published several books on cooperatives and the history of the Zionist Youth-Zionist socialists.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Getzel Kressel, Leksikon hasifrut haivrit (Handbook of Hebrew literature), vol. 2 (Merḥavya, 1967); D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 4 (Tel Aviv, 1950); L. Ram, in Folksblat (Tel Aviv) 6 (1976); Devar hakooperatsya, sefer lezikhro shel yisrael ritov (On cooperatives, a volume to the memory of Yisael Ritov) (Tel Aviv, 1977).

Ruvn Goldberg