Leo Motzkin

Born in Brovary near Kiev (now Kyiv, Ukraine), Leo Motzkin studied mathematics and sociology at the University of Berlin. While a student, he became involved in nationalist politics, and in 1887, he cofounded the Russian Jewish Academic Association. By the time of the First Zionist Congress in 1897, he was active in the Zionist movement. Around the turn of the twentieth century, Motzkin advocated for the democratization of Zionist leadership, and during World War I, he led the Zionist Organization in neutral Denmark. Following the war, he called for the creation of the World Jewish Congress, which would seek to represent the interests of Jews as a national minority in the field of international relations. Motzkin organized the Paris Peace Conference’s Jewish delegation and in later years actively organized resistance to the Nazi party in Germany.