HANNA HELENA THON

HANNA HELENA THON (January 22, 1886-March 10, 1954)

            She was born in Dresden, Germany.  Her family moved to Berlin when she was eleven years of age.  She lived in London for a year, 1907-1908.  She became a journalist and Zionist.  She worked with Martin Buber and Victor Jacobson.  She was involved in the founding of the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO) in London shortly after WWI.  She was the author of Dos idishe land un di idishe froy, vos darf idishe froy visn vegn erets yisroel un dem oyfboy verk (The Jewish country and the Jewish woman, what the Jewish woman should know about the land of Israel and construction work) (Jerusalem, 1932?), 31 pp.  She died in Jerusalem.

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 277.

(Translator’s note. For considerably more on Thon, see the essay on her in “Jewish Women’s Archive” at: http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/thon-hannah-helena)