David Wolffsohn

Who was David Wolffsohn?

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

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 settled in Memel, East Prussia where he met Rabbi Isaac Rülf, who accepted him as a student. Rülf taught Wolffsohn the German language and mathematics, and introduced him to the Hovevei Zion movement.

Wolffsohn became a merchant and toured eastern Germany. There he met A. D. Gordon, from whom he borrowed many of his ideas regarding Zionism.

At the start of the 20th century, Wolffsohn accompanied Theodor Herzl in his travels to the Palestine and Istanbul.

Wolffsohn was elected as the vice president of the World Zionist Organization in the World Zionist Congress of 1905, and in 1907 became its president.

He died in Homburg, Germany.