David Yellin, 1864-1941

Yellin co-founded and led the Hebrew Language Committee and the Teachers Union. He also founded a Hebrew teachers college now named after him. He helped modernize Hebrew and published a dictionary in 1920. He held leadership posts in the Yishuv and in Jerusalem, where he was born. He returned a British award in 1939, 21 years after receiving it, in anger over his son’s death in the Arab Revolt and anti-Jewish British policies.

Photo: Jewish National Fund Archive