Tribute to the achievements of Jacobus Kann, Dutch Jewish leader, and at present Dutch Consul in Jerusalem, was paid by the paper “De Telegraaf” in connection with the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the Dutch Zionist Federation.
At nineteen years of age, “De Telegraaf” write, he was the head of the banking house of Lissa and Kann. It was by his energetic and capable management that the firm attained its present high position. In 1906 it celebrated its centenary and this was one of the great events in Dutch financial life.
Herzl’s call, the paper proceeds, found an immediate echo in Jacobus Kann. He founded the Netherlands Zionist Federation. It was not always an easy task for him. His views were not always the views of the majority in the Federation. But for all that he never left the movement.
In the life of Holland, too, Kann was an active worker. He was one of the closest friends and helpers of the great Dutch pedagogue, Jan Ligthart, and did a great deal for the educational system at The Hague. It is due to him that The Hague has its School Union, its Netherlands High School and The Hague School for Girls.
During the war he placed himself entirely at the service of the Dutch Government, acting as president of the Exchange Commission, a post which he accepted at the express wish of Dr. Treub, then Minister of Finance.
The silver jubilee of the Netherlands Zionist Federation was incomplete since he was absent, concludes the paper.
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.
