GUTMANN, DAVID MEIR

GUTMANN, DAVID MEIR (1827–1894), Ereẓ Israel pioneer. Born in Hungary in 1827, Gutmann fought in the Hungarian War of Independence in 1848, but was disillusioned by the Hungarian attitude toward Jews. In 1876 he sold his property and settled with his wife in Ereẓ Israel. In Jerusalem he was influenced by the visionary ideas of his friend akiva yosef schlesinger , gave large donations to charitable institutions, took part in land purchase and the establishment of new quarters outside the walls of the Old City, and also searched for land for agricultural settlement, despite the objection of several rabbis. He joined a group of Jerusalemites who, when they failed in attempts to purchase land near Jericho, acquired the Mullabis lands by the Yarkon River in 1878 and established   Petaḥ Tikvah there. Gutmann was one of the founders of the settlement and suffered greatly on its behalf. He sold all his property in Jerusalem to pay the settlement's debts and conduct its law cases with the previous landowners. In his old age he was greatly impoverished. He died in Jaffa and was buried in Jerusalem. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Tidhar, 1 (1947), 304; EẒD, 1 (1958), 457–9; G. Kressel, Em ha-Moshavot Petaḥ Tikvah (1953), ch. 5. (Galia Yardeni-Agmon)