David Wolffsohn


David Wolffsohn was a Lithuanian-Jewish businessman, prominent early Zionist and second president of the Zionist Organization.

Biography

David Wolffsohn was born in Darbėnai, Lithuania to religious parents, Isaac and Feiga. He received an observant religious education from his parents and in 1872 was sent to Germany to avoid conscription into the Russian army. He moved to Memel, East Prussia, to live his family, where he met Rabbi Isaac Rülf. Rülf accepted him as a student and taught Wolffsohn the German language, mathematics, and introduced him to the Hovevei Zion movement.
Then he moved to Lyck were he met A. D. Gordon.
He died in Homburg, Germany.

Zionist activism

At the start of the 20th century, Wolffsohn accompanied Theodor Herzl in his travels to Palestine and Istanbul.
Wolffsohn was elected as the vice president of the Zionist Organization in the World Zionist Congress of 1905, and in 1907 became its president.
Before he died, he provided a short synopsis of his life for Nahum Sokolow, another Zionist leader of the time. In it he notes the following:
In addition to his early specifics noted above, he wrote:
For later years, he wrote
Of his Zionist activities, he said: