Salman Schocken

Salman Schocken was born in 1877 in Margonin

Schocken was born in 1877 in Margonin, near Posen in the German Empire. His father was a Jewish tailor, and the family had 7 children. At 14 he began working as an apprentice in a textile shop.

In 1901 he moved to Zwickau and, with his brother Simon, built a chain of department stores across Germany. Architect Erich Mendelsohn designed several of its buildings. By 1930 the chain had 20 stores, and after Simon died in 1929 Schocken became its sole owner.

In 1915 he helped found the Zionist journal Der Jude, edited by Martin Buber, and he gave financial support to S.Y. Agnon. In 1931 his publishing house began work, printing Agnon and German Jewish writers such as Franz Kafka. He also served on the board of the Jewish National Fund and helped buy land in the Haifa Bay area.

After the Nazis came to power he lost his German citizenship and was forced to sell his businesses. In 1934 he moved to the Land of Israel, built the Schocken Library in Jerusalem and bought Haaretz in 1935. He headed the executive committee of the Hebrew University from 1935 to 1945.

In 1940 he settled in the United States, and in 1945 he opened Schocken Books in New York. He died in Pontresina, Switzerland, in 1959 and was buried in Israel.