Kurt Blumenfeld

Kurt Blumenfeld was born in 1884 in Olecko

Kurt Blumenfeld was born on May 29, 1884, in Marggrabowa, East Prussia, in the German Empire. As a child he was raised in a spirit of assimilation.

He joined the Zionist movement while he was a student. In 1909 he became secretary of the Zionist Federation of Germany, and from 1911 to 1914 he was secretary general of the World Zionist Organization. In 1913 and 1914 he edited the Zionist newspaper Die Welt.

In 1924 he became president of the Zionist Federation of Germany. He opposed the anti-Nazi boycott. In 1933, after the Nazis came to power and his Berlin home was searched, he left for the Land of Israel.

In the Land of Israel he joined the board of Keren Hayesod. He was a leader of the progressive wing of the General Zionists and a supporter of Chaim Weizmann. He was a friend of Hannah Arendt.

He was married to Jenny, daughter of Michael Horowitz, and had children including Naomi Shemer, Raphael Blumenfeld and Rachel Slutzky. He died in Jerusalem on May 21, 1963, after a long illness, and was buried in the Sanhedria cemetery. A street in Kiryat HaYovel in Jerusalem bears his name.