Eisenberg, Aharon Eliyahu
EISENBERG, AHARON ELIYAHU
EISENBERG, AHARON ELIYAHU (1863–1931), pioneer of Jewish settlement in Ereẓ Israel. Eisenberg, born in Pinsk, Russia, settled in Ereẓ Israel in 1886. He worked as a laborer in *Rishon le-Zion, later settling in Wadi Hanin (now Nes Ẓiyyonah), where he became one of the outstanding vineyard cultivators in the country. Eisenberg was one of those who acquired the land of *Reḥovot from its previous owners (1890). He was entrusted with the task of cultivating the lands of members of the Menuḥah ve-Naḥalah Association (the group of Warsaw Zionists who established Reḥovot) living abroad. He joined the *Benei Moshe association in 1893. In 1904 he established Agudat Neta'im, an association for planting and cultivating vineyards and orange groves on behalf of foreign investors. Eisenberg was instrumental in establishing small holdings for Jewish workers. He also helped settle Yemenite immigrants in Reḥovot. In 1920 he was chosen a delegate to the first Asefat ha-Nivḥarim and to the Palestine Advisory Council established by Sir Herbert *Samuel in the same year. Eisenberg was a leading member of the Va'ad Leummi and participated in various delegations to Paris and London.
bibliography:
A. Yaari, Goodly Heritage (1958), 191–8, 217; E. Ha-Dani (ed.), A.E. Eisenberg (Heb., 1947); M. Smilansky, Misḥpahat ha-Adamah, 1 (1953), 116–27.
[Yehuda Slutsky]