Jacob Lestschinsky

Jacob Lestschinsky was born in 1876 in Horodyshche

Lestschinsky was born in 1876 in Horodyshche, near Kyiv, in the Russian Empire. He received a traditional Jewish education and studied in a yeshiva. As a teenager he was influenced by the Hebrew writer Ahad Ha'am.

He studied at university in Switzerland for a decade and returned to Russia in 1913. He was active in Zionist and socialist politics, including the Zionist Socialist Workers Party. In 1903 he was a delegate to the Sixth Zionist Congress and abstained on the Uganda question.

He began publishing research on European Jewry in 1903, using numbers and demographic data. During the February Revolution of 1917 he helped found the United Jewish Socialist Workers Party. After being imprisoned following the October Revolution, he left for Berlin in 1921 and became a correspondent for the New York Yiddish daily Forverts.

In 1925 he was among the founders of YIVO and headed its Section for Economics and Statistics. He moved to Warsaw in 1933 and emigrated to the United States in 1938. In New York he worked with the Institute of Jewish Affairs of the World Jewish Congress.

He later immigrated to Israel and continued his research. He wrote in several languages and published 25 books. He died in 1966 and was buried at Har HaMenuchot.