ZLATOPOLSKY, HILLEL

ZLATOPOLSKY, HILLEL (1868–1932), Zionist leader, industrialist, and philanthropist. Zlatopolsky was born in Yekaterinoslav. As secretary to max mandelstamm , the Zionist Organization representative for the Kiev district (1897–1905), Zlatopolsky was in charge of the Zionist activities there, as well as of the financial center of Russian Zionists. He played a leading role in organizing the opposition to the uganda Scheme. He was one of the founders of the Ḥovevei Sefat Ever Society (Friends of the Hebrew Language, 1907) and was also active in the Histradrut le-Safah u-le-Tarbut Ivrit (Association of Hebrew Language and Culture). He made substantial financial contributions to facilitate the establishment of a network of Hebrew schools, ranging from kindergarten to teachers' seminaries. He also subsidized the Hebrew daily Ha-Am, and the habimah theater in Moscow and was one of the founders of Omanut, a publishing house for Hebrew textbooks and readers (the latter in cooperation with his daughter Shoshannah and son-in-law Joseph persitz ). During World War I, he lived in Moscow, but he left Russia in 1919. Together with isaac naiditsch , he was one of the founders of the keren hayesod , and as a member of its first board of directors he conceived the idea of a national tithe. Zlatopolsky wrote articles on Zionism and Hebrew culture, as well as feuilletons, the latter containing a wealth of general Jewish and ḥasidic folklore. Some of his writings were published in two collections, Bi-Tekufat ha-Teḥiyyah (1917) and Sefer ha-Feuilletonim (1944). He died in Paris, the victim of a murder. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Glickson, Ishim, 1 (1940), 231–7; D. Smilansky, Im Benei Dori (1942), 175–8. (Yehuda Slutsky)