Isaac Leib Goldberg

Isaac Leib Goldberg (February 7, 1860 – September 14, 1935) was a Zionist leader and philanthropist in both Israel and the Russian Empire. An early member of the Hovevei Zion movement (1882) he also founded the Ohavei Zion society. Goldberg was a delegate to the First Zionist Congress and the founder of two Hebrew newspapers, Ha'aretz (Israel's oldest daily newspaper) and Ha'am.

Isaac (Heb. Yitzchak) was born on February 7, 1860 in Szaki, Congress Poland (present-day Šakiai, Lithuania) to Alexander Sander HaLevi Goldberg and Liba Segal, his brother was Boris Goldberg. In his early years, Goldberg studied at Kovno Yeshiva and settled in Vilnius, Lithuania. His wife was Rachel Pinnes and they had five children, Hannah Tolkowsky, Shulamit Hochfeld; Samuel Goldberg; Yehudit Klibanov, and Binyamin Zeev Goldberg.

In 1903 the first plot of land for the Jewish National Fund was given as a gift by Goldberg for growing olives in Israel. In 1908 he purchased the first plot of land on Mount Scopus, Jerusalem for the future Hebrew University. Isaac Leib Goldberg also helped create the Geulah Company for private land acquisition and sale in Israel, and the Carmel Company for sale of Jewish wine.

In 1919 he co-founded the newspaper Haaretz in Jerusalem.

Upon his death on September 14, 1935 in Switzerland, Goldberg bequeathed one half of his estate to the Jewish National Fund for the promotion of Hebrew language and culture. This donation, known as the Isaac Leib and Rachel Goldberg Fund, amounted to roughly $30 million by today's standards. Goldberg was buried in Trumpeldor, Tel Aviv, Israel.

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