Baruch Ostrovsky

Infobox_Politician
name = Baruch Ostrovsky

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birth_date = birth date|1890|10|10|mf=y
birth_place = Ukraine, Russia
death_date= death date and age|1960|7|17|1890|10|10|mf=y
death_place= Israel
residence =
office = Mayor of Raanana
term_start = 1931
term_end = 1959
predecessor =
successor =
party =
religion =
spouse = Feiga Ostrovsky
children = Shoshana, Ben-Zion, Ayala
website =

Baruch Ostrovsky (1890-1960; Hebrew: ברוך אוסטרובסקי), the first mayor of Raanana, served as mayor for 28 years. A unique man, he championed democracy, equality, education and organized Jewish labor as a way of life, not just dry slogans.

Early life

Baruch Ostrovsky was born in the Ukraine town of Rogechov, in 1890. In early childhood, receiving a traditional 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 U.S. with the intention of marrying his fiancée, who had by then arrived there from Ukraine. The political situation -- the outbreak of World War I -- obstructed his plans to return at once with his family.

From Vision...

In 1913 he took part in the founding of Ahuza Alef - 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 US, 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. Contemporaneously with his educational work, Ostrovsky was active in the Zionist Movement's labor organization, Poale Zion, with the leaders David Ben-Gurion, Ber Borochov and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. He directed and published the Youth Organizations' journal.

...To Fulfillment

In 1930 Ostrovsky finally succeeded in fulfilling his Zionist ambition by giving up his comfortable existence in the USA and settling in Raanana, a small town in the Sharon plain, with his wife and two children.

"As a Zionist, I abandoned my source of income, the respected position I acquired in America as the principal of a high school in NY, as the head of the Jewish Teachers' Union, as editor of a Jewish Journal and as author of Yiddish school books and immigrated to Eretz Yisrael. A Zionist is not only said ..." (Excerpt from Ostrovsky's Diary)"

Ostrovsky regarded Raanana as his life project and as mayor, he dedicated himself fully and wholeheartedly to Raanana's construction and development. His public service was a non-paid voluntary post as he refused payment in excess of the salary of an agricultural day laborer, which he was earning. The equivalent of his municipal salary formed a lending fund at the disposal of the needy. Many of the early settlers of Raanana benefited from his support in those early days. His sincere concern for the welfare and rights of the laborers knew no limits. He joined forces to form a variety of beneficial enterprises: a unified labor office, a unified front protecting organized Jewish labor, a joint health fund (kupat holim) for all inhabitants of the town, and the establishment of a lending and savings bank; also, the organization of a permanent water supply system for the town.

Ostrovsky's activities as a supporter of organized Jewish labor are augmented by his campaign for laborers' voting rights -- deprived from the new-comers by the older Jewish settlements taking advantage of the mandate's discriminatory set of laws. His modest mode of life, scorning all forms of luxury and excess, placed him on equal ground with the hard working and low earning inhabitants of his town. He nurtured good relations with the neighboring Arab villagers, particularly with those of Hirbet Azun. Setting Raanana's high standards as a 'green' settlement, promoting equality and the welfare of citizens, and laying the foundation stones of many public and educational institutions, the seeds sown in Baruch Ostrovsky's day flourish and are the pride of Raanana to the present-day.

Baruch Ostrovsky was a lover of books and his 4000 volume library, encompassing a wide variety of subjects – on the history of the Zionist organization, on Eretz Yisrael, history, philosophy, education, literature and encyclopedias – were at the disposal of those eager to broaden their knowledge in the small developing town.

Ostrovsky envisioned the plans for Raanana's first high school though he did not live to see it. The Ostrovsky high school is no doubt an appropriate tribute to his memory. The history of Raanana is densely interwoven in Ostrovsky's life story and imprinted in the history of the Zionist Movement and the establishment of the State of Israel.

Baruch Ostrovsky was a distinguished person, modest and sincere, a man of vision and of deeds, a man of letters and an educationalist, a leader possessed of fine social standards and sensitivity. Late in his life he wrote:

"We emigrated from America, not to be capitalists or land-owners, but rather to be Jews and live amongst Jews in an independent Jewish State, a democratic existence of equality, wherein everyone will be capable of earning his living – even if we are the sole followers of this socialistic system.""

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