Kurt Blumenfeld (May 29, 1884 – May 21, 1963) was a
German-born
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 ...
from
Marggrabowa,
East Prussia. He was the secretary general of the
World Zionist Organization
The World Zionist Organization ( he, הַהִסְתַּדְּרוּת הַצִּיּוֹנִית הָעוֹלָמִית; ''HaHistadrut HaTzionit Ha'Olamit''), or WZO, is a non-governmental organization that promotes Zionism. It was founded as the ...
from 1911 to 1914. He died in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
.
He had served as secretary of the
Zionist Federation of Germany
The Zionist Federation of Germany (german: Zionistische Vereinigung für Deutschland) also known as the Zionist Association for Germany was a Zionist organisation in Germany that was formed in 1897 in Cologne by Max Bodenheimer. It had attracte ...
from 1909 to 1911 and later served as president of that organization from 1924 to 1933, when he fled the rising tide of antisemitism in Nazi Germany for Palestine, after they had searched his Berlin home. He was a good friend of
Hannah Arendt. Blumenfeld opposed the
Anti-Nazi boycott saying “The boycott harms German Jews first and foremost. The boycott has no favorable results for us.”
He died in Jerusalem, Israel in 1963 at the age of 79.
Works
* Kurt Blumenfeld und Hans Tramer: ''Erlebte Judenfrage. Ein Viertel-Jahrhundert deutscher Zionismus''. Stuttgart 1962
* ''Im Kampf um den Zionismus. Briefe aus fünf Jahrzehnten''. Stuttgart 1976
* Hannah Arendt und Kurt Blumenfeld: ''... in keinem Besitz verwurzelt.'' Die Korrespondenz, hrsg. von Ingeborg Nordmann und Iris Pilling, Hamburg 1995,
References
Bibliography
*
*
* Laqueur. ''History of Zionism''. p. 156.
1884 births
1963 deaths
People from Olecko
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Mandatory Palestine
German Zionists
People from East Prussia
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