Meir Dizengoff
| Meir Dizengoff | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 1st Mayor of Tel Aviv | |
|
In office 1921–1925 |
|
| Succeeded by | David Bloch-Blumenfeld |
| 3rd Mayor of Tel Aviv | |
|
In office 1927–1936 |
|
| Preceded by | David Bloch-Blumenfeld |
| Succeeded by | Moshe Chelouche |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
25 February 1861 Ekimovtsy, Bessarabia |
| Died | 23 September 1936 (aged 75) Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine |
| Political party | General Zionists |
| Religion | Jewish |
Meir Dizengoff (Hebrew: מאיר דיזנגוף, Russian: Меер Янкелевич Дизенгоф Meer Yankelevich Dizengof, 25 February 1861 – 23 September 1936) was a Zionist politician and the first mayor of Tel Aviv (1911-1922 as head of town planning, 1922-1936 as mayor).
Meir Dizengoff was born in 1861 in the village of Ekimovtsy near Orhei, Bessarabia. In 1878, his family moved to Kishinev, where he graduated from high school and studied at the polytechnic school. In 1882, he volunteered in the Imperial Russian Army, serving in Zhitomir (now in the northwestern Ukraine) until 1884. There he first met Zina Brenner, whom he married in the early 1890s. After his military service, Dizengoff remained in Odessa, where he became involved in the Narodnaya Volya underground. In 1885, he was arrested for insurgency. In Odessa, he met Leon Pinsker, Ahad Ha’am and others, and joined the Hovevei Zion movement. Upon his release from prison, Dizengoff returned to Kishinev and founded the Bessarabian branch of Hovevei Zion, which he represented at the 1887 conference. He left Kishinev in 1889 to study in Paris.
While studying chemical engineering at the University of Paris, he met Edmond James de Rothschild, who sent him to Ottoman-ruled Palestine to establish a glass factory which would supply bottles for Rothschild's wineries. Dizengoff opened the factory in Tantura in 1892, but it proved unsuccessful due to impurities in the sand, and Dizengoff soon returned to Kishinev. There he met Theodor Herzl and became his ardent follower, despite having been strongly opposed to the British Uganda Scheme promoted by Herzl at the Sixth Zionist Congress.
...
Wikipedia