AVIAD, YESHAYAHU

AVIAD, YESHAYAHU (Wolfsberg, Oscar ; 1893–1957), author and leader of religious Zionism. Aviad, who was born in Hamburg, studied at the universities of Heidelberg, Wuerzburg, and Berlin. After serving as medical officer on the Eastern Front during World War i, he settled in Berlin where he practiced as a pediatrician. Aviad became a member of the central committee of the Mizrachi movement in Germany, edited its organ Juedische Presse, and was a delegate to many Zionist Congresses. In 1926 he was elected president of Mizrachi in Germany. Settling in Palestine in 1933, Aviad continued in medical practice there. He became a leading member of Ha-Po'el ha-Mizrachi, as well as a member of the executive of Mosad ha-Rav Kook, of Brit Ivrit Olamit ("World Hebrew Union"), and of the Court of Honor of the World Zionist Organization. One of the founders of the religious youth village Kefar ha-No'ar ha-Dati near Haifa (1938), he was also its spiritual mentor. He served as Israeli envoy in Scandinavia in 1948–49, and in 1956 was Israeli minister in Switzerland, where he died. His principal works are Theory of Evolution and the Faith of the Jews (1927); Zur Zeit-und Geistesgeschichte des Judentums (1938); Yahadut ve-Hoveh ("Judaism and the Present," 1962); a collection of essays, Ba-Perozedor ("In the Corridor," 1943); She'arim ("Gateways," 1948); and Iyyunim be-Yahadut ("Studies in Judaism," 1955). He also wrote books on the philosophy of history and profiles of prominent Jewish personalities. A list of his works appears in Shai li-Yshayahu (1956), 47–63.

bibliography:

eẒd, 1 (1958), 12–18; Kressel, Leksikon, 1 (1965), 9f.

[Yosef Burg]