Hans Kohn - Robert Weltsch Correspondence

Born in Prague on September 15, 1891, Hans Kohn was active in Zionist student organizations. He received a Doctor of Law degree from the German University in Prague. In World War I, he became a prisoner of war and was interned in Samarkand and Khaborovsk, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk in Siberia/Soviet Union until 1920. In the following years he lived in Paris and London, working for Zionist organizations and publishing numerous books and articles. In 1921 he married Jetty Wahl. In 1925 they moved to Palestine, where he worked for Karen Hayesod until 1929. After traveling repeatedly to the United States, Hans Kohn left Palestine and in 1934 started teaching Modern History at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. From 1949 until 1961, he taught at City College of New York. Kohn also taught at the New School for Social Research and at Harvard Summer School. He published extensively on questions of Nationalism and related topics. He died 1971 in Philadelphia.

Born in Prague on June 20, 1891, Robert Weltsch was active as a student in Zionist youth groups. After World War I he moved to Berlin, where he edited the German Zionist newspaper Juedische Rundschau from 1919 to 1938. In 1939 he emigrated to Palestine where he edited the Juedische Welt-Rundschau, 1939-1940. In 1945, Weltsch moved to London, where he was correspondent of the daily Ha-aretz, one of the founders of the Leo Baeck Institute, and editor of its Yearbook, 1956-1971. He returned to Israel in 1978 and died in Jerusalem on December 22, 1982.