Wellesley Aron

Wellesley Aron was born in 1901 in London

Wellesley Aron was born in London in 1901 to German Jewish parents, Agnes Gerchter and Maurice Aron. His half-siblings were raised as Christians, and his mother's home kept almost no Jewish practice. During World War I the family lived in Germany and then Switzerland, and he returned to London with his mother after the war.

In 1919 he began studying French history at Cambridge. From 1921 he worked with poor Jewish youth in London's East End and founded a Jewish scout troop in Stepney. After a young woman's father refused to let her marry him because he was Jewish, he turned to Zionism, studied Hebrew and met Chaim Weizmann.

After finishing at Cambridge in 1926 he moved to Palestine and taught sports and English at the Reali school and the Herzliya Gymnasium. He married Rose, and their first daughter was born there. In 1927 Weizmann asked him to help the Zionist Office in London, and he returned there with his family a year later.

In London he founded Habonim, a Jewish cultural youth movement that joined scouting with Jewish history, Hebrew and outdoor activity. His fundraising also led him to help found the Bar Kochba Jewish sports club in England. He served in World War II with the Jewish Brigade, later campaigned for peace and helped found the School for Peace at Neve Shalom. He died in 1988.