APPEL, JUDAH LEIB

APPEL, JUDAH LEIB (1857–1934), one of the first active members of the Ḥovevei Zion movement in Vilna. Appel, who was born in Viekšniai, Lithuania, served as secretary of the Ḥovevei Zion branch in Vilna for almost 25 years. He was also secretary of the benei moshe chapter there. In 1902 Appel and shealtiel graeber established a publishing house which published Zionist periodicals and propaganda literature. In 1921 he went to Palestine and became secretary to isaac leib goldberg and manager of his estate in Hartuv. Almost all of Appel's valuable archives on Zionism were burned during the 1929 riots. Appel's memoirs of various periods in the history of Ḥibbat Zion and of Zionism in Russia were published in his book, Be-Tokh Reshit ha-Teḥiyyah ("In the Beginning of the Rebirth," 1936).   -BIBLIOGRAPHY: I. Broides, Vilna ha-Ẓiyyonit ve-Askaneha (1939), index; I. Klausner, Ha-Tenu'ah le-Ẓiyyon be-Rusyah, 1 (1962), index. (Yehuda Slutsky)