Baruch Ostrovsky

Baruch Ostrovsky (Hebrew: ברוך אוסטרובסקי; 10 October 1890 – 17 July 1960) was the first mayor of Ra'anana, Israel, and served as mayor for 28 years. He championed democracy, equality, education and organized Jewish labor.

Background

Baruch Ostrovsky was born in Russian Empire, in the town of Rahachow (now in Belarus), in 1890. In early childhood, receiving a traditional Jewish education, he already demonstrated a craving for higher education and Zionism. In 1912 he immigrated to Palestine alone, laboring with the pioneers of the Second Aliyah and joining the HaShomer organization. A year later, he departed for the United States with the intention of marrying his fiancée, who had by then arrived there from Russia. The political situation — the outbreak of World War I — obstructed his plans to return at once with his family.

In the United States

In 1913 he took part in the founding of Ahuza Alef in New York, an organization dedicated to the purchase of lands and the establishment of a Hebrew settlement, to be inhabited by Jews tilling their own soil.

While in the United States, Ostrovsky earned his living teaching a wide variety of subjects, including Hebrew, history, Bible, as well as Yiddish. He became a renowned and respected educational figure, as director and inspector of schools as well as principal of the teacher's seminary of the Workmen's Circle Jewish educational system.