Leon Chasanowitch

Born Kasriel Arieh Shub in Shirvint, Russian Empire (today Širvintos, Lithuania), Leon Chasanowitch (Jazenovitz) became active in Po‘ale Tsiyon in 1905 and worked as a labor Zionist journalist and organizer. In 1908, Chasanowitch traveled to Argentina to report on the Jewish Colonization Association’s (JCA) agricultural settlements. Appalled by the conditions of laborers, he began to organize a labor movement and was subsequently expelled by the JCA leadership and the Argentinian government. Back in Europe in 1910, Chasanowitch worked for Russian, Austrian, and American branches of the Po‘ale Tsiyon.