Jacob de Haas

Jacob de Haas (13 August 1872 – 21 March 1937) was a British Hasidic Jew, a journalist and an early leader of the Zionist movement, who propagated the movement in the United States.

Biography

De Haas was born in London in 1872. He was the secretary of the First Zionist Congress and he introduced Theodor Herzl to the UK in the Jewish World newspaper. At the Third Zionist Congress in 1899, he and L. J. Greenberg were elected as members of the Zionist Organization's Propaganda Committee.^[1]

He moved to the United States in 1902. Theodor Herzl had suggested to Richard Gottheil that he hire de Haas as the new secretary of the Federation of American Zionists (FAZ) to replace Stephen Samuel Wise. De Haas assumed the leadership of the fragmented American Zionist movement. One of his best known accomplishments was his befriending of Louis Brandeis, the best known, and admired secular Jew in America. De Haas introduced Brandeis to the ideas of Theodor Herzl and ideals of Zionism. After a relatively short period of examination and self-examination, Louis Brandeis became an ardent, committed Zionist in 1908. More importantly, Brandeis, would head the FAZ and the American Zionist movement by 1912.^[2] He died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City on 21 March 1937 after a lengthy illness.^[3]

Literary works

• an editor of the "Jewish World" (1892-1900), at London
• an editor of the "Jewish Advocate (or The Boston Jewish Advocate)" (1908-1918), at Boston
• author of "Theodor Herzl, a biographical study", New York, 1927. (2 volumes)
• editor of The Encyclopedia of Jewish Knowledge (1934), at New York and London
• author of History of Palestine: The Last Two Thousand Years (1934), in New York City

References

1. Nahum Sokolow, History of Zionism 1600-1918, p.xliii (1919)
2. Richard Gottheil, the Reluctant Father of American Zionism
3. "Jacob De Haas, Herzl Collaborator, Dead Here at 64". JTA. 23 March 1937. Retrieved 15 January 2015.

External links

• The personal papers of Jacob de Haas are kept at the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem. The notation of the record group is A404.
• Louis Dembitz Brandeis Boston Homes by Michael Alan Ross at www.gis.net