JASINOWSKI, ISRAEL ISIDORE

JASINOWSKI, ISRAEL ISIDORE (1842–1917), Russian Zionist leader. Born in Kosov, Russia, he received a religious education and in 1874 completed his law studies at the University of Kazan, where he was awarded the degree of advocate for his thesis on "Sources of Jurisprudence in Holy Scripture and in its Oral Tradition." He then became a renowned lawyer in Warsaw, where he headed the *Ḥibbat Zion movement soon after its establishment. He was among the organizers of the *Kattowitz Conference (1884) and was elected to the Central Committee of Ḥibbat Zion. Together with Leo *Levanda and P. Loewenson, Jasinowski drafted the regulations of the "Odessa Committe" of Ḥovevei Zion, called officially the Society for Supporting Jewish Agriculturists and Artisans in Syria and Palestine, and participated in the founding meeting of the society (1890). Jasinowski joined the Zionist movement at its inception and participated in its first seven congresses. He represented the Warsaw "constituency" and his office served as the center of Zionist activities in Russian Poland. He was among those who supported the *Uganda Scheme, and, after the Seventh Zionist Congress, he joined the Jewish Territorial Organization (see *Territorialism). He was a member of its International Council and participated as its representative at the Brussels Conference on questions of Jewish migration (1906). In his last years Jasinowski became alienated from the Jewish national movement and came closer to assimilationist circles.

bibliography:

A. Druyanow, Ketavim le-Toledot Ḥibbat Ẓiyyon ve-Yishuv Ereẓ -Yisrael, 3 vols. (1919–32), indexes; I. Klausner, Mi-Katoviẓ ad Basel, 2 vols. (1965), indexes.

[Yehuda Slutsky]