ISH-KISHOR, EPHRAIM

ISH-KISHOR, EPHRAIM (1863–1945), one of the first followers of Ḥibbat Zion\>\> and of political Zionism in England. Born in Ponjemon, Lithuania, he lived from the beginning of the 1880s in England, where he taught Hebrew. He was one of the first to promote Ḥibbat Zion in England through essays, stories, and poems in Yiddish newspapers that he published and edited at the end of the 1880s and the beginning of the 1890s. Ish-Kishor adhered to Herzl upon his first appearance in England, and in his diary, on July 15, 1896, Herzl mentions that Ish-Kishor came to see him and proposed the establishment of an organization to be headed by Herzl: "A hundred persons will gather in the East End; they will enlist members in all the countries and they will create propaganda for a Jewish state." Ish-Kishor later participated in the First Zionist Congress and was active in the Zionist Federation of Great Britain. In 1907 he went to the United States, where he continued his Zionist work. He was also among the founders of the Judea Insurance Company and worked for it when he settled in Palestine in 1933. His daughter, SHULAMITH ISH-KISHOR (1896–1977), who lived in New York, was a noted children's writer whose work included Our Eddie (1970). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sefer ha-Congress, 2 (1950), 85–86, 361; T. Herzl Complete Diaries, ed. by R. Patai, 5 vols. (1960), index; Haolam (Oct. 4, 1945). (Getzel Kressel)