David Wolffsohn (9 October 1855 in Darbėnai, Kovno Governorate – 15 September 1914) was a Lithuanian-Jewish businessman, prominent early Zionist and second president of the Zionist Organization (ZO).

Biography

David Wolffsohn was born in Darbėnai, Lithuania (then Russian Empire) to religious parents, Isaac and Feiga. He received an observant religious education from his parents and in 1872 was sent to Germany to avoid conscription into the Russian army. He moved to Memel, East Prussia, to leave his family, where he met Rabbi Isaac Rülf. Rülf accepted him as a student and taught Wolffsohn the German language, mathematics, and introduced him to the Hovevei Zion movement. Then he moved to Lyck (today Ełk) where he met David Gordon. Wolffsohn married Fanny (Fruma) nee Judel, in 1880. Their firstborn son died shortly after birth and they had no other children. Fanny died in 1912, two years before her husband. Wolffsohn died in Homburg, Germany. On 2 July 1952 the coffins of Wolffsohn and his wife were reinterred in Israel. A funeral ceremony was held in the square in front of the National Institutions Building in Jerusalem. Speaker of the Knesset Yosef Sprinzak and the Chairman of the Zionist Executive Berl Locker delivered eulogies. The funeral procession then departed for Mount Herzl. The Wolffsohns were buried in the Herzl family burial plot. An exhibit on the life of Wolffsohn and his Zionist activities was held in the Zionist archive in the basement of the National Institutions Building.

Zionist activism

At the start of the 20th century, Wolffsohn accompanied Theodor Herzl in his travels to Palestine and Istanbul. Wolffsohn was elected as the vice president of the Zionist Organization in the World Zionist Congress of 1905, and in 1907 became its president. Before he died, he provided a short synopsis of his life for Nahum Sokolow, another Zionist leader of the time. In it he notes the following: In addition to his early specifics noted above, he wrote: For later years, he wrote Of his Zionist activities, he said: