Lipsky, Louis

(1876–1963)

   US Zionist leader and publicist. For six decades no American Zionist platform was without the tall figure and thin, clever face of Louis Lipsky, who came from Rochester, New York. Possessed of a lucid mind and a skilful pen, he became the leading editor and pamphleteer of American Zionism. This gift for exposition was allied to organizing ability and personal charm.

   One of eleven children in a Polish immigrant family, Lipsky started work at fifteen in a cigar factory, and then took up journalism. He was drawn into the Zionist movement before the First Congress in 1897. He edited the English- language Zionist organ, The Maccabean, from its inception in 1901, and its successor, The New Palestine weekly. He served on the executive of the Federation of American Zionists from 1903 and became its chairman in 1911. The Federation was succeeded by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) of which he was general secretary and later president. In 1921 the American Zionist movement went through a major crisis, that led to the withdrawal of BRANDEIS and other leaders. Lipsky remained loyal to WEIZMANN and helped to keep the movement intact after this heavy blow. Together with Rabbi Stephen WISE, Lipsky was one of the founders and active leaders of the American Jewish Congress, and later of the World Jewish Congress in 1936. A three-volume collection of Lipsky’s writings was published in 1927, and his Gallery of Zionist Profiles in 1956.