Ozjasz Thon

Ozjasz Thon.

Jehoshua Ozjasz Thon (also Osias, anglicized spelling; 1870, Lvov – 1936, Krakow) was a rabbi, early Zionist, and leader of the Jewish community in Poland.

Biography

Academic background and activities

Thon studied philosophy and sociology under George Simmel. As a student, he assisted Theodor Herzl in the ideological preparations for the First Zionist Congress, and in 1897 published a groundbreaking philosophical study of Zionism, Zur geschichtsphilosophischen Begrendung des Zionismus. Thon wrote literary and scientific academic works and journalistic essays, and a 1910 work on the philosophical and sociological methods of Herbert Spencer.

Rabbinic appointment

In 1897, Ozjasz Thon was appointed to the rabbinate of Krakow, a position he held until his death. He was the rabbi of the Tempel Synagogue of the Reform movement. He promoted a Zionist program despite the overall assimilationist trends prevalent in the Jewish community at that time, and was an adherent of Ahad Ha'Am's school of Jewish identity.

Political career

In 1906, Thon made an unsuccessful bid to represent the Jewish National Party in Kolomyya, Eastern Galicia, in the elections to the Austrian parliament. He continued his political activities and expanded them after the First World War. He represented the Western Galician Jewish National Council at the Versailles Peace Conference. In 1919, Thon was elected to the first Sejm and served in the Polish parliament until 1931, where his oratory received a hearing even among antisemitic MPs.

References

• Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. 15, pp. 1121–1123. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing, 1971.

Persondata
Name	Thon, Jehoshua Ozjasz
Alternative names	Thon, Osias
Short description	Rabbi, writer, zionist
Date of birth	1870
Place of birth	Lviv
Date of death	1936
Place of death	Krakow