The Beginnings of the Jewish Social Democratic Workers Party, Po‘ale Tsiyon

Yaakov Zerubavel (also Vitkin) was a journalist, editor, activist in the Po‘ale Tsiyon movement, and founder of the Mapam Party in Israel. Born in Poltava, Ukraine, Zerubavel was a fervent Yiddishist who sought to keep the language current in Israel. After living in Vilna and Lvov, and serving as editor of the Yidisher arbeter, he moved to Palestine in 1910, was arrested by Ottoman authorities during World War I, and spent time in the United States and Russia before returning to Palestine in 1935, where he served on the executive of the trade union organization Histadrut.