Bernard Flexner (1865–1945), a New York lawyer, was a prominent member of the

Zionist Organization of America 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 ...

. Flexner was born in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

to a family that immigrated from Europe in the early 1860s. He studied law in the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one o ...

and the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

. He was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1898. He practiced law until 1914, when he became active in public activity. He was chair of a Juvenile court board in Louisville and in 1917 participated in a

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delegation to

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. He served as counsel for the Zionist delegation to the Paris Peace Conference (1918–1919) and in 1925 he was one of the founders of the ''Palestine Economic Corporation'' (PEC). He served as president of PEC until 1931 and afterwards was chairman of the director council of the PEC.M. A. Novomeysky
Bernard Flexner in Memoriam
The Palestine Post, 14/05/1945 He was one of the founders of the Council on Foreign Relations. His papers are held in the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

Writings

''The Rights to a Jewish Home Land'',

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

, October 2, 1929.

External links

Bernard Flexner Papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University

References

1865 births 1945 deaths American Jews American lawyers People from New York (state) American Zionists {{Judaism-bio-stub