Born in Ukraine, Motzkin joined the Russian-Jewish Academic Society at the University of Berlin, a forerunner of political Zionism. At the First Zionist Congress he helped formulate the Basel Program for achieving a Jewish home in the Land of Israel. He criticized the Rothschild-funded First Aliyah settlement program and urged Zionists to defend Jewish rights in the Diaspora. He chaired the Zionist Executive from 1925 to 1933.
Photo: Central Zionist Archives