STAND, ADOLF

STAND, ADOLF (1870–1919), Zionist leader in Galicia and one of the leaders of world Zionism. Born in Lemberg, Stand became a Zionist in the 1880s. He was very active in the organization of Zionist societies and was the editor of the fortnightly Polish-language paper Przyszłość ("Future") and later of the important Zionist annual in Polish Rocznik Żydowski ("Jewish Yearbook"). He joined Theodor *Herzl and always regarded himself as his disciple. A period of great activity ensued for Stand as, traveling through Galicia, he won over audiences with his Zionist speeches and established various Zionist groups. He was considered one of the finest speakers of his generation. In addition to his Jewish education, he had mastered German and Polish cultures, and put them to good use in his speeches.

He largely built up the Zionist movement in Galicia. In 1907 he was elected to the Austrian parliament for the district of Brody-Zloczow in eastern Galicia, and was among the founders of the Club of Jewish Members of Parliament, the first of its kind in Jewish parliamentary history. Despite his great admiration for Herzl, he opposed the *Uganda Scheme. In opposition to Herzl, Stand favored practical settlement activity in Ereẓ Israel. On the outbreak of World War i, Stand fled to Vienna together with other Jewish refugees from the areas of Galicia conquered by the Russian army but was unable to adapt himself to his new circumstances, although he joined the Austrian Zionist leadership, and with the end of hostilities was appointed chairman of the East Galician National Council Mission in Vienna. In fact, his position as the leader of Galician Jewry had come to an end in 1914. After World War ii, letters from Herzl to Stand were discovered and transferred to the Zionist Archives in Jerusalem. A Hebrew selection of his writings, Kitvei Stand, was published in Tel Aviv in 1942.

bibliography:

N.M. Gelber, Toledot ha-Tenu'ah ha-Ẓiyyonit be-Galiẓyah, 2 vols. (1958), index; Z.F. Finkelstein, Stuermer des Ghetto (1924).

[Aryeh Tartakower]