MARGULIES, EMIL

MARGULIES, EMIL (1877–1943), lawyer and Zionist leader. Born in Sosnowiec, Poland, Margulies became an ardent Zionist as a young man and, after his settlement in Bohemia, had a great share in the development of Zionism there and in the west Austrian district. At the Tenth Zionist Congress (1911), he submitted a new statute for the Zionist Movement. Throughout his life he was a "political" Zionist, and in 1923 he was co-founder of the Radical Zionist Fraction (Democratic Zionists), fighting against the enlargement of the jewish agency by non-Zionists. Parallel to his Zionist activities, Margulies was one of the principal founders of the Czechoslovak "Jewish Party," of which he became president for a time. He also actively participated in the work on international minority problems and was a Jewish representative to the Congress of National Minorities. Margulies attained world renown through his action in the bernheim petition . In 1939 he settled in Palestine, where, together with some colleagues, he opened an office for legal advice. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Faerber, Dr. Emil Margulies (Ger., 1949); Tidhar, 4 (1950), 1680–81. (Oskar K. Rabinowicz)