Schachtel, Hugo-Hillel

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SCHACHTEL, HUGO-HILLEL

SCHACHTEL, HUGO-HILLEL (1876–1949), early Zionist and one of the heads of the *Jewish National Fund (jnf) in Germany. Born in Sulnierschuetz (now Sulmierzyce, Poland), Schachtel later settled in Breslau, where he completed his studies as a dentist. He began his activities in a Breslau Zionist society and offered his services to Theodor *Herzl shortly after the appearance of Der Judenstaat. In his reply (dated Nov. 19, 1896), Herzl asked him to set up propaganda societies in Poland. Schachtel spent the following decades active in Zionist affairs, both in the Breslau Zionist society and in the jnf. In 1904 he published a manual of information about Ereẓ Israel and the Zionist movement which ran through several editions (the fifth edition came out in 1924 under the title Eretz-Israel Merkbuch). He also compiled an index to the proceedings and a collection of the resolutions of the first seven Zionist Congresses (1905–06). In 1932 he settled in Haifa.

bibliography:

N. Agmon (Bistritski; ed.), Megillat ha-Adamah, 2 (Demuyot; 1951), 199–200; G. Herlitz, Ishim ba-Ẓiyyonut (1965).

[Getzel Kressel]