Leon Pinsker

Leon Pinsker
Лев Пинскер לעאָן פינסקער
Born	(1821-12-13)13 December 1821 Tomaszów Lubelski, Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire
Died	9 December 1891(1891-12-09) (aged 69) Odessa, Russian Empire
Education	Law
Alma mater	Odessa University
Occupation(s)	Physician, political activist
Known for	Zionism
Movement	Hovevei Zion (Zionism)

Leon Pinsker^[a] or Judah Leib Pinsker (Hebrew: יהודה לייב פינסקר; Russian: Йехуда Лейб Пинскер; 25 December [O.S. 13 December] 1821 – 21 December [O.S. 9 December] 1891) was a physician and Zionist activist.

Earlier in life he had originally supported the cultural assimilation of Jews in the Russian Empire. He was born in the town of Tomaszów Lubelski in the southeastern border region of the Kingdom of Poland, and educated in Odessa, where he studied law but was unable to practice because of restrictions on occupations available to Jews.

Pinsker was a supporter of equal rights under the law for Jews, but his optimism was curtailed after the Odessa Pogroms. In response to the pogroms of 1871 and 1881, Pinsker founded the Zionist organization Hibbat Zion in 1881.

Political disagreements between religious and secular factions of the Odessa Committee, and Ottoman restriction on Jewish emigration, prevented Pinsker from resettling, and he died in Odessa in 1891. His remains were later brought to Jerusalem in 1934.
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