Kurt Blumenfeld

Kurt Blumenfeld (May 29, 1884 – May 21, 1963) was a German-born Zionist from Marggrabowa, East Prussia. He was the secretary general of the World Zionist Organization from 1911 to 1914. He died in Jerusalem.

He had served as secretary of the Zionist Federation of Germany from 1909 to 1911 and later served as president of that organization from 1924 to 1933, when he fled the rising tide of antisemitism in Nazi Germany for Palestine, after they had searched his Berlin home.[1] He was a good friend of Hannah Arendt.[2] Blumenfeld opposed the Anti-Nazi boycott saying “The boycott harms German Jews first and foremost. The boycott has no favorable results for us.”[3]

He died in Jerusalem, Israel in 1963 at the age of 79.[1]

Works

• Kurt Blumenfeld und Hans Tramer: Erlebte Judenfrage. Ein Viertel-Jahrhundert deutscher Zionismus. Stuttgart 1962
• Im Kampf um den Zionismus. Briefe aus fünf Jahrzehnten. Stuttgart 1976
• Hannah Arendt und Kurt Blumenfeld: ... in keinem Besitz verwurzelt. Die Korrespondenz, hrsg. von Ingeborg Nordmann und Iris Pilling, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 388022806X

References

1. NYT 1963.
2. Elon 2006.
3. Weiss, Yf'aat. "__________________________________________________________________________ Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies 33 / 1 The Transfer Agreement and the Boycott Movement: A Jewish Dilemma on the Eve of the Holocaust" (PDF). Yad Vashem Studies. Retrieved 14 February 2019.

Bibliography

• Elon, Amos (2006). "The Excommunication of Hannah Arendt". World Policy Journal. 23 (4): 93–102. JSTOR 40210059.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• "Kurt Blumenfeld Dies in Israel; Zionist Leader in Germany, 79". New York Times. 23 May 1963. p. 35.
• Laqueur. History of Zionism. p. 156.