Shmuel Tolkowsky

Shmuel Tolkowsky was born in 1886 in Antwerp

Tolkowsky was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1886 to Moshe and Shulamit. His father headed the Antwerp Jewish community, and he grew up in a Jewish national setting. In 1908 he joined the Zionist movement and helped found the Tseirei Zion group.

He studied at an agronomy institute in Gembloux, Belgium, and qualified as an agricultural engineer. In 1911 he moved to the Land of Israel and settled in Rehovot. In 1912 he bought the first orange grove in Rehovot with his father and partners.

When World War I began in 1914 he was in Belgium and was drafted into the Belgian army. After Belgium's defeat he found refuge in England and married Hannah Goldberg in November 1914. In London he helped Weizmann and Sokolow, kept a diary of Zionist political work, and served as general secretary of the Zionist delegation to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.

After the war he returned to Palestine and worked to develop citrus farming, shipping and ports. He was a member of the Tel Aviv city council and a founder of the ZIM shipping company. From 1949 he served as Israel's Consul General in Switzerland and was promoted to Minister in 1951. He died in 1965.