LATZKY-BERTHOLDI, JACOB ZE'EV WOLF

LATZKY-BERTHOLDI, JACOB ZE'EV WOLF (Wilhelm ; 1881–1940), journalist and Socialist leader, born in Kiev and educated in Riga. After being expelled from the Riga Polytechnicum in 1901 for his political activities, he went to Berlin, where he founded Ḥerut ("Liberty"), a Zionist-Socialist group, with Nachman *Syrkin. Back in Russia, he co-founded the *Vozrozhdeniye group in Kiev (1903) and was co-founder and ideologist of the *Jewish Socialist Workers' Party in that city. He visited New York in 1908. He contributed to the party newspapers, Yidisher Proletarier, Unzer Veg, and Fraynd. While in Vienna he wrote for Dos Yidishe Frayland, Neue Nationalzeitung, and Oesterreichisches Wochenblatt. In 1917 he was a co-founder and leader of the *Folkspartei, and in 1918 was appointed minister for Jewish affairs in the government of independent Ukraine. In 1920 he settled in Berlin. From 1923 to 1925 he visited the Jewish settlements in South America on behalf of the World Jewish Aid Conference and "Emigdirect" in search of possibilities for emigration and colonization. Later he published a book on the subject, Di Aynvanderung in di Yidishe Yishuvim in Dorem Amerike (1926). Returning to Riga in 1925, he edited the dailies Dos Folk and Frimorgn. He published Erd-Gayst, a collection of essays on Jewish culture, history, sociology, and art (1918; a second edition, 1932). His Yiddish translation of Nathan *Hannover's Yeven Mezulah with an introduction was published in 1938. Latzky-Bertholdi settled in Ereẓ Israel in 1935; there he joined *Mapai and contributed to Ha-Po'el ha-Ẓa'ir, Moznayim, and Bamah. His library is in Kefar Giladi.

bibliography:

lnyl, 4 (1961), 455–8; Rejzen, Leksikon, 2 (1927²), 76–81; Wininger, Biog, 3 (1928), 606–7.

[Mendel Bobe]