Katznelson, Reuben
KATZNELSON, REUBEN
KATZNELSON, REUBEN (1890–1977), Ereẓ Israel pioneer in medical services, brother of Raḥel (Shazar) *Katznelson. Born in Bobruisk, Belorussia, Katznelson was wounded in 1905 in a pogrom while on duty in the Jewish self-defense organization. In 1906 he was a member of the territorialist movement called the "Zionist Socialists (ss)" and later joined the Zionist student society He-Ḥaver in Kiev. At the outbreak of World War i he was in Ereẓ Israel and worked in Tel Aviv in building and as an agricultural laborer in Reḥovot, where he served as chairman of the workers' council. Deported by the Turks at the beginning of World War i he went to Alexandria, where he joined Joseph *Trumpeldor in the Zion Mule Corps; at the time the corps was disbanded, he had achieved the rank of sergeant major. In 1920 Katznelson was appointed director of the department of statistics of the Hadassah Medical Organization and in 1922–30 served as assistant director of Hadassah. In 1931 he established a medical organization for the Jewish villages (moshavot) in Palestine and became the director of Kuppat Ḥolim Ammamit (see State of Israel: *Health Services). In the same year he joined the General Zionists, later serving as a member of its national council. He was also the chairman of the Organization of Demobilized Soldiers. His son shmuel *tamir (1923–1987) was an Israeli politician and lawyer.
bibliography:
Tidhar, 1 (1947), 305–6.