Meir Grossman, noted Zionist leader, prominent journalist and a former member of the Jewish Agency executive, died here suddenly over the weekend, a few hours after he fell ill and was taken to the hospital. He was 76 years old.
Born in Russia, Mr. Grossman studied in Odessa and worked for Russian newspapers. Later, however, he devoted himself entirely to the Jewish press. During World War I, he lived in Copenhagen where he edited the Jewish newspaper “Copenhagener Toghlatt” and also co-edited the Zionist organ “Tribuna” with Vladimir Jabotinsky.
During the Russian Revolution, Mr. Grossman lived in the Ukraine, where he was elected a member of the Rada (the Ukrainian Parliament) and of the Jewish National Assembly. He was also a member of the Zionist Council in the Ukraine and editor of the daily newspaper “Die Welt,” published in Kiev. In 1919, he moved to London where, together with Jacob Landau, he founded the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Active in the world Zionist movement, Mr.Grossman attended every Zionist Congress after World War I and was a member of the Zionist Actions Committee since 1934. He was one of the founders of the Jewish State Party, which merged in 1948 with the Zionist Revisionist movement, of which he became vice-chairman. He left the Revisionist movement after differences of opinion with Mr. Jabotinsky, its leader.
Mr. Grossman visited the United States several times. In 1920, he married Barbara de Port, an American Journalist. They lived in England where Mr. Grossman directed the work of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in Europe and Palestine. In 1934, they settled in Israel. During World War II, Mr, Grossman and his family lived in the United States, where he was active in the American Jewish Conference and in the Zionist movement. In 1948, he returned to settle in Israel, where he remained for the rest of his life. He was a member of the Jewish Agency executive during 1954-60 and was at one time the head of the Agency’s economic department.
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.
