WEINSHALL

WEINSHALL , Ereẓ Israel family. ben zion ze'ev (Vladimir; 1863–1943) was born in Grodno, studied at the Russian Military Academy of Medicine, and served as a government doctor in the Caucasus. He was employed among the "*Mountain Jews" to fight cholera, while his permanent residence was in Baku, where he worked for 20 years (1902–22). He was a member of the Zionist movement from its inception, having joined Ḥovevei Zion in Minsk during the Bilu period (1882–83). During 1917–20 he edited the Russian-language Zionist newspaper in the Caucasus, Yevreyski Kavkazski Vestnik. He settled in Palestine in 1922, and, after serving as village doctor in Reḥovot (1923–24) and municipal doctor of Tel Aviv (until 1926), he settled in Haifa, where he opened a private practice. In 1928, he was elected president of the Haifa branch of the Medical Society.

His son jacob (1891–?) was born in Tiflis in the Caucasus. Serving in the Russian army as medical officer in 1916, he joined Joseph *Trumpeldor in his attempt, after the Russian Revolution, to organize Jewish soldiers of the Russian army to effect a breakthrough on the Caucasus front and conquer Palestine. In 1922 he settled in Palestine, serving as a doctor in the *kuppat Ḥolim of the Histadrut until 1932. He was a member of the municipal council of Tel Aviv (1925–28), a delegate to the first and second Asefat ha-Nivḥarim, and a member of the Va'ad Le'ummi. He took part in the establishment of the Union of Zionist Revisionists at its founding conference in Paris (1925) and was chairman of its central committee in Palestine until 1928. After the assassination of Chaim *Arlosoroff, he published a novel based on the murder and trial, entitled Ha-Mishpat Yatḥil Maḥar ("The Trial Will Begin Tomorrow"), which appeared in the Revisionist newspaper Ha-Am. In 1939 he founded the biweekly Ha-Ḥevrah. A prolific writer, he favored the biographic and historic-novel form, including Hans Herzl (1945), Marco Baruch (1949), Aggadat Onkelos ("The Onkelos Legend," 1951), and others. He wrote a book about *Jabotinsky (Jabo, 1954).

His second son abraham (1893–1968) was born in the Caucasus. In 1920 he settled in Haifa, where he was appointed municipal legal adviser. An expert on questions concerning real estate, he was instrumental in the acquisition of valuable land for Jewish settlement, including the land for Nahariyyah, Shavei Zion, and a new commercial center in Haifa. Weinshall's legal essays were published in the professional organ Ha-Peraklit. He became chairman of the Revisionist central committee in Palestine. During 1925–31 he was a member of the Jewish community council of Haifa, also serving in 1927–33 as a member of the Asefat ha-Nivḥarim and the Va'ad Leummi. He published and edited the first newspaper of Haifa, Ha-Ẓafon, during 1926–27. In 1937 Abraham dissociated himself from the Revisionists and submitted a memorandum to the British government on the solution of the Palestine problem in the name of a group headed by him called Benei Ḥorin. In 1947 he was detained in the Latrun camp by the British authorities, together with other political leaders.

bibliography:

Tidhar, 2 (1947), 602, 879–90, 901.