Aryeh Leib Frumkin

Who was Aryeh Leib Frumkin?

Aryeh Leib Frumkin was a rabbi, Zionist, a founder and pioneer of Petah Tikva, the first yishuv created in the pre-state of Israel. He also was an author of halachic texts, a teacher, and operator of a wine shop, L. Frumkin and Company.

He was born in Kelmė, Lithuania in 1845.

He emigrated to Palestine during the First Aliyah in 1883. While there he founded the settlement of Petah Tikva in which he built the first house there and helped to drain the malaria-ridden swamps His planting of the first tree there is emblazoned on the seal of the municipality and there is a street named after him

He moved to London, England in 1893 after an Arab attack on Petah Tikva. In London's East End he operated a family wine shop.

After returning to Petah Tikvah he died and was buried there in 1916.

He was the great-grandfather of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the previous Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom.