1. Baruch Ostrovsky championed democracy, equality, education and organized Jewish labor.
11 Facts About Baruch Ostrovsky
1. 2.
Baruch Ostrovsky was born in Russian Empire, in the town of Rahachow, in 1890.
3.
Baruch Ostrovsky 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.
4.
Contemporaneously with his educational work, Baruch Ostrovsky was active in the Zionist Movement's labor organization, Poale Zion, with the leaders David Ben-Gurion, Ber Borochov and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.
5.
In 1930 Baruch Ostrovsky finally succeeded in fulfilling his Zionist ambition by giving up his comfortable existence in the USA and settling in Ra'anana, a small town in the Sharon plain, with his wife and two children.
6.
Baruch Ostrovsky's 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.
7.
Baruch Ostrovsky displayed sincere concern for the welfare and rights of the laborers.
8.
Baruch Ostrovsky joined forces to form a variety of beneficial enterprises: a unified labor office, a unified front protecting organized Jewish labor, a joint health fund for all inhabitants of the town, and the establishment of a lending and savings bank;, the organization of a permanent water supply system for the town.
9.
Baruch Ostrovsky nurtured good relations with the neighboring Arab villagers, particularly with those of Hirbet Azun.
10.
Baruch Ostrovsky set high standards for the city as a 'green' settlement, promoted equality and the welfare of citizens, and laid the foundation stones of many public and educational institutions.
11.
Baruch Ostrovsky envisioned the plans for Ra'anana's first high school, although he did not live to see it.