DOBKIN, ELIYAHU

DOBKIN, ELIYAHU (1898–1976), Labor Zionist leader. Dobkin, who was born in Bobruisk, Belorussia, was a founder of the Zionist student organization, He-Ḥaver, in 1914 in Kharkov. He became general secretary of the He-Ḥalutz\>\> movement in Warsaw in 1921. In 1932 he settled in Palestine. He served as a Mapai deputy-member of the Jewish Agency and Zionist Executive from 1937 to 1946, and thereafter as a full member. During World War II Dobkin was head of the Jewish Agency's immigration department, which dealt with rescue activities in Europe and later with "illegal" immigration. From 1951 to 1968 Dobkin served as head of the Agency's Youth and He-Ḥalutz Department, and was also chairman of Keren Hayesod ("United Israel Appeal") from 1951 to 1962. Dobkin was chairman of the Bezalel National Museum, Jerusalem. His writings include the book Ha-Aliyyah ve-ha-Haẓẓalah bi-Shenot ha-Sho'ah ("Rescue and Immigration during the Holocaust, 1946"). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Tidhar, 3 (19582), 1374. (Benjamin Jaffe)