Jaffa Changes Its Face

Born on the banks of the Dnieper in Smila in the Russian Empire (today in Ukraine), Ze’ev Smilansky received a traditional heder education, with some exposure to secular subjects. He traveled to Palestine in 1891, working in the agricultural colonies of Rishon Lezion and Ḥadera and in the town of Jaffa at various points. After returning to the Russian Empire for several years due to illness, Smilansky settled permanently in Palestine around 1903, purchasing a farm in Rehovot. Involved early on with Ha-Po‘el ha-Tsa‘ir, Smilansky contributed articles related to economics and business to the Hebrew-language Zionist press in Palestine and abroad. Following World War I, he moved to Tel Aviv, where he worked for the city government as a statistician. Ze’ev Smilansky was the nephew of the writer Moshe Smilansky (pen name Hawaja Musa) and the father of the writer Yizhar Smilansky (pen name S. Yizhar).