Yofe, Leyzer-Lipe
January 12, 1882–September 18, 1952
He was born in a village in Chotin (Hotin) district, Bessarabia. He received a strictly religious education and later graduated from a technical school in Odessa.
In 1904 he came to the United States on a Zionist mission. He was a cofounder of the Zionist associations: Hateḥiya (Revival), Haikar Hayehudi (The Jewish Farmer), and the American division of Haḥaluts (The Pioneer). He was also a teacher and instructor in the first Hakhshara (Training for agricultural emigrants to Palestine) group in California.
In late 1910 he moved to Israel. He published an appeal for a youth aliya from Russia to Israel in Hamelits (The Advocate) (Odessa-St. Petersburg) in 1902, and he later published articles and “Letters from the Land of Israel” in: Fohn (Banner) in New York (1906); Idisher Kempfer (Jewish Fighter) in Philadelphia-New York; and Dos Yidishe Folk (The Jewish People) in Vilna; among other serials.
He edited the agricultural trade journals Gan hayarok (Vegetable Garden) and Hasade (The Field) in Tel Aviv.
He authored the following books (among others): Yesod moshve ovdim (Foundation of the Settlements of Workers) (Jaffa, 1919), 80 pp.; Gidul yerakot (Growing vegetables) (1921); the historical drama Befaame hakilayon (In Times of the Destruction) (Tel Aviv, 1926), 168 pp.; and the two-volume Kitve Eliezer Yofe (Writings of Eliezer Yofe) (Tel Aviv, 1947).
He died in Afula, Israel.
Sources: D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of the Yishuv), vol. 1 (Tel Aviv, 1947), pp. 395-96; Shpizman, in Geshikhte fun der Tsienistisher Arbeter-Bavegung fun Tsofn-Amerike (History of the Zionist Labor Movement in North America), vol. 1 (New York, 1955), pp. 65, 66, 214, 216, 233; Y. Mikhali, in Asufot (Tel Aviv) (December 1959), pp. 107-10.