Arthur Menachem Hantke

Arthur Menachem Hantke was born in 1874 in Berlin

Hantke was born in Berlin into a religious Jewish family from Posen. He received a traditional Jewish education. He studied at universities in Berlin and Freiburg and earned a doctorate in law.

In 1900 he opened his own law office. As a student he was drawn to Zionism, and in 1893 he helped found a national Jewish society in Berlin. From 1901 he was a delegate to all Zionist congresses.

He sat on the board of the Jewish National Fund from 1903 to 1928 and chaired the Zionist Organization in Germany from 1910 to 1920. During World War I he moved the Zionist Executive to neutral Copenhagen with Otto Warburg. He opposed forming the Jewish Legion, welcomed the Balfour Declaration and sought similar statements from the Central Powers.

In 1919 he initiated the Central Zionist Archives. In 1926 he became a director of Keren Hayesod and moved to the Land of Israel, and in 1933 he became its head. In that role he dealt with the immigration of German Jews after the Nazis took power.

He married Edith Heiman in 1909. He died in Jerusalem in 1955. The moshav Even Menachem and streets in several cities are named after him.