Yosef Aronovich

Born in the Podolian shtetl of Kiriyevka (today Kyriïvka, Ukraine), Yosef Aronovich (Aharonovich) received a traditional education but was then drawn to Haskalah Hebraism and ultimately Zionism. Deserting the Russian army in 1904 to avoid fighting in the Russo-Japanese War, he started a Zionist agricultural training program in Brody (then, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire) called Ḥalutzei Tsiyon (Pioneers of Zion), and arrived in Palestine in 1906. There Aronovich became the founding editor of Ha-Po‘el ha-tsa‘ir (The Young Worker), the organ of the Ha-Po‘el ha-Tsa‘ir socialist non-Marxist Zionist movement, which, during his editorial tenure 1907–1922, he used to support the new Hebrew literature and culture and propound the idea of communal farms. He joined the Histadrut in 1923 as the Bank Hapoalim’s new director; became increasingly active in the Hebrew Writers Association, contributing to their Moznaim journal; and served on the Tel Aviv city council.