Abba Hillel Silver, 1893-1963
Silver, a child immigrant to New York from Lithuania, was a leading American advocate and fundraiser for Zionism and headed the U.S. Zionist establishment in the late 1940s. He rallied support for a Jewish state…
Moshe Smilansky, 1874-1953
Smilansky was born into a farming family in Ukraine and urged agricultural labor to renew the Jewish people. He joined the First Aliyah in the 1890s. He helped launch and led the moshav movement and…
Peretz Smolenskin, 1842-1885
Born into poverty in Russia, Smolenskin emerged as a prominent Hebrew writer and early proponent of the Zionist movement during the 19th century. His novels depicting Jewish life conveyed his political ideas and social grievances….
Moshe Sneh, 1909-1972
Sneh was a left-wing Knesset member from 1949 to 1972, mostly with the Communist Maki party. Born in Poland, Sneh was a founder of the General Zionists in 1935 and a doctor with the Polish…
James Snyder, 1952-
Since 2020, Snyder has been the executive chairman of the U.S.-based Jerusalem Foundation, which raises money and seeks partnerships to support the efforts of the Jerusalem Foundation in Israel to develop Jerusalem into an ideal…
Nahum Sokolow, 1859-1936
Born in Poland, Sokolow was a prolific writer and journalist, including a Hebrew newspaper in Warsaw and books on geography and antisemitism. He translated Theodor Herzl’s “Altneuland” into Hebrew as “Tel Aviv,” providing the city’s…
Michael Solomonov, 1978-
A multiple James Beard Award winner who leads several Israeli-themed restaurants in Philadelphia and writes cookbooks, Solomonov was born in Israel and raised in Pittsburgh. He worked in a bakery when he returned to Israel…
Yosef Sprinzak, 1885-1959
Originally from Moscow, Sprinzak was the first speaker of the Knesset, a position he held until his death. He was interim president after Chaim Weizmann died. After immigrating to Palestine during the Second Aliyah, Sprinzak…
Leonard Stein, 1887-1973
A British lawyer, Stein was stationed with the army in Jerusalem and Cairo and was part of the pre-mandate British administration of Palestine. He published a 1922 pamphlet titled “The Truth About Palestine” to counter…
Michael Steinhardt, 1940-
Billionaire New York philanthropist Steinhardt’s extensive donations to Jewish causes include co-founding Birthright Israel with Charles Bronfman and launching a network of Hebrew-language charter schools. He chaired the board of Tel Aviv University and endowed…
Avraham Stern, 1907-1942
Born in Russian-ruled Poland, Stern immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1925. After serving in the Haganah, he joined the militant underground Irgun in 1932. He broke from the Irgun in 1940 to form Lehi, a…
Mark Sykes, 1879-1919
Sykes was a British diplomat who, with French diplomat François Georges-Picot, negotiated the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916. The pact called for dividing the Middle East territories of the Ottoman Empire after its defeat in…
Nahum (Nachman) Syrkin, 1868-1924
Born in Belarus, Syrkin joined Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) in high school. He was one of the earliest proponents of Labor Zionism, which called for the establishment of a socialist-Jewish state in the Land…
Henrietta Szold, 1860-1945
Baltimore native Szold co-founded Hadassah, was its first president from 1912 to 1926, and led its establishment of health care infrastructure in Palestine. In 1896, before Theodor Herzl published “The Jewish State,” she described her…
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