The 80th birthday of Dr. Arthur Hantke, a pioneer of the world Zionist movement and chairman of the Board of Directors of the Keren Hayesod, will be observed here tomorrow, (A message of congratulations to Dr. Hantke was cabled today by Rabbi Irving Miller, president of the Zionist Organization of America and chairman of the American Zionist Council.)
Dr. Hantke was active in Zionist work in Germany even prior to the emergence of Dr. Theodor Herzl, founder of the modern Zionist movement. As a young man in Berlin, Hantke became active in the movement for the rebuilding of Zion in the year 1895, two years before the establishment of the World Zionist Organization by Dr. Herzl in 1897.
At the conclusion of the First World War, Dr. Hantke settled in London in 1919 where he assumed charge of world Zionist organizational work as a member of the Zionist executive. At the twelfth Zionist Congress in Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia, in 1921, he was elected president of the greater Zionist Actions Committee and then until 1926 he directed the Central European Department of the Keren Hayesod. In 1926 he settled in Palestine as a permanent resident and has been active in directing the work of the Keren Hayesod in Jerusalem to this day.
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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.