Jacob de Haas (13 August 1872 – 21 March 1937) was a British-born Jewish journalist and an early leader of the

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

movement in the United States.

Biography

Jacob De Haas was born in London. He was the secretary of the

First Zionist Congress The First Zionist Congress ( he, הקונגרס הציוני הראשון) was the inaugural congress of the Zionist Organization (ZO) held in Basel (Basle), from August 29 to August 31, 1897. 208 delegates and 26 press correspondents attende ...

and introduced

Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl; hu, Herzl Tivadar; Hebrew name given at his brit milah: Binyamin Ze'ev (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer, journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was the father of modern po ...

to the UK in the ''Jewish World'' newspaper. In 1896, he became the first member of

Hovevei Zion Hovevei Zion ( he, חובבי ציון, lit. '' hose who areLovers of Zion''), also known as Hibbat Zion ( he, חיבת ציון), refers to a variety of organizations which were founded in 1881 in response to the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russ ...

to encourage the movement to adopt the political Zionist program of Theodor Herzl. At the Third Zionist Congress in 1899, he and L. J. Greenberg were elected as members of the Zionist Organization's Propaganda Committee. He moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 1902. Theodor Herzl had suggested to Richard Gottheil that he hire de Haas as the new secretary of the

Federation of American Zionists The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) () is an American non-profit pro-Israel organization. Founded in 1897, as the Federation of American Zionists, it was the first official Zionist organization in the United States. Early in the 20th centur ...

(FAZ) to replace

Stephen Samuel Wise Stephen Samuel Wise (March 17, 1874 – April 19, 1949) was an early 20th-century American Reform rabbi and Zionist leader in the Progressive Era. Born in Budapest, he was an infant when his family immigrated to New York. He followed his fath ...

. De Haas assumed the leadership of the fragmented American Zionist movement. One of his best known relationships was his friendship with Louis Brandeis, the most widely 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. De Haas died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City on 21 March 1937 after a lengthy illness.

Selected bibliography

* Editor of the "''Jewish World''" (1892-1900),

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

* Editor of "''The Jewish Advocate''" (1908-1918),

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

* Author of "Theodor Herzl, a biographical study",

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, 1927. (2 volumes) * Editor o
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Knowledge
(1934),

and

* Author o
History of Palestine: The Last Two Thousand Years
(1934), in

References

External links

* Personal papers of Jacob de Haas are kept at the
Central Zionist Archives
in Jerusalem. The notation of the record group is A404.

at www.gis.net