Gershon Agron, Mayor of Jerusalem, died here today at the age of 66, from an acute lung infection which followed a cancer operation. He had been admitted to the Hadassah-Hebrew University Hospital early in September.
Elected as Jerusalem mayor in 1955, he was running for re-election in the forthcoming municipal elections on Tuesday. He headed the list of candidates of the Mapai, Israel’s Labor Party, of which he was a leading member for many years.
Leaders of the Government, including President and Mrs. Izhak Ben-Zvi as well as Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, expressed profoundest condolences in messages to the widow, Mrs. Ethel Agron.
Born in the Ukraine, he came with his parents to the United States at the age of 7. He studied at Brown University and at the Graetz Academy for Jewish Studies in Philadelphia. In 1918 he joined the Jewish Legion as volunteer and served in Palestine until 1920, when he returned to the United States and became editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
In 1924 he went back to Palestine and settled there permanently, first acting there as correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and editing the Palestine Bulletin, a daily newspaper in English established by the JTA in Jerusalem. The paper was later acquired by him and a group of investors and was reorganized into The Palestine Post under his direction and editorship. It is now known as The Jerusalem Post.
During the British administration of Palestine, Agronsky, who later shortened his name to Agron, also served as correspondent of the Times of London and of other British newspapers. When Israel was established, he became director of the Israel Government Information services. He visited the United States on several missions since 1949 and also toured the country on behalf of the United Jewish Appeal and the Israel bond campaign.
Premier Ben-Gurion stated, in a message to the widow, “Gershon Agron’s untimely death brings grief and shock. A volunteer from the United States, he was a member of the first Jewish Legion in our generation. He was one of our most talented and upright Journalists. His passing is a loss to the Jewish public, the State, the City of Jerusalem, Journalism, the Jewish press, the pioneering movement and the Labor Party.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
