Abraham Revusky

REVUSKY, ABRAHAM (1889–1947), leader of the *Po'alei Zion movement and Zionist worker. Revusky was born in Smela, Ukraine, but spent his childhood years in Reḥovot, Israel, which his parents helped to found. The family returned to Russia for reasons of health and Abraham was educated in Russia and Austria. He returned to Russia before World War I, and joined the Po'alei Zion party, contributing to both the Russian and Yiddish press. During the Revolution of 1917–18, he was an administrative member of the Jewish community in Odessa. He became associated with Ukrainian nationalist circles and at the beginning of 1919 for a short while he held the position of minister for Jewish affairs in the nationalist Ukrainian government. He resigned from this position as a result of attacks perpetrated against the Jews by units of the Ukrainian army. His memoirs of this period (In di Shvere Teg oyf Ukraine, 1924) provide a historical document of much interest. From 1920 to 1921 his party sent him to Palestine to fight the anti-Zionist trends that had appeared within the Palestinian branch (Mifleget Po'alim Soẓyalistim, MPS; see *Israel, State of: Political Life and Parties). He participated in the founding conference of the Histadrut as a delegate of the MPS. In the summer of 1921 he was expelled from the country as a result of the publication of his pamphlet, "From Balfour to Samuel," in which he voiced what was considered to be destructive criticism of the Mandatory government. He left for Western Europe, and settled in Berlin, and in 1924 he went to the United States. After some hesitation he joined the "Rightist Po'alei Zion," contributing to Zionist propaganda activities in both Yiddish and English. His principal work, Jews in Palestine, was published in various editions and in several languages, the last in English in 1947. Revusky died in New York.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.