Rosmaryn, Henryk

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ROSMARYN, HENRYK

ROSMARYN, HENRYK (1882–1955), lawyer, journalist and political leader in Poland. Rosmaryn, who was born into an assimilated family in eastern Galicia, joined the Zionist organization and while still a law student was elected a member of its central committee. Before World War i, he edited the Zionist weekly in Polish Wschód. In 1918 he founded, with G. *Zipper, the Zionist daily in Polish *Chwila, which was published in Lvov, heading the editorial board until 1939.

For many years, he was a member of the Zionist Actions Committee representing the Zionists of eastern Galicia, and president of the Maccabi organization of Poland. From 1922 Rosmaryn was elected three times to the Polish Sejm (parliament) in Warsaw and was an active parliamentarian. Rosmaryn was a member of the presidency of the Jewish Club ("Kolo Zydowskie") in the Sejm, and became known for his struggle against the antisemitic policy of the government during the 1930s. With the outbreak of World War ii, he fled to Romania, from where he went to Palestine in 1940. Between 1941 and 1945, he represented the Polish government-in-exile of London in Tel Aviv in the capacity of consul-general.

bibliography:

N.M. Gelber, Toledot ha-Tenu'ah ha-Ẓiyyonit be-Galiẓyah, 2 (1958), index; I. Schwartzbart, Tsvishn Beyde Velt Milk-homes (1958), index.

[Moshe Landau]

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