Dov Lipetz — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Dov Lipetz (1897 – May 11, 1990) was one of the leading Hebrew educators in Lithuania, a Zionist and Hebrew activist, director of the Tarbut network in Lithuania. After immigrating to the Land of Israel, he served as a teacher and principal of a high school in Tel Aviv, manager of the Am Oved publishing house, and the founding director of the Am HaSefer publishing house. He was one of the initiators of the Lithuanian Jewry commemoration project and a co-editor of the memorial book Jewish Lithuania.

Dov, the son of Aharon Lipetz, was born in 1897 in the city of Kaunas, then capital of a province in the Russian Empire (and later the "temporary capital" of independent Lithuania). He was a graduate of a Russian high school for commerce. He studied law at the universities of Kharkov, Simferopol, and Kaunas.

From a young age, he was active in the Hebrew and Zionist youth movement in Lithuania, and later in Russia. He served as chairman of the central committee of the Tze'irei Zion (Young Zionists) movement and of the HeHalutz movement in Crimea (1920).

He returned to Lithuania, and shortly after the establishment of the Hebrew Gymnasium in Vilkomir (a rival school to the city's Yiddish-language Real-gymnasium), he served as its principal from its founding in 1922 until the 1924/25 school year. He was succeeded by Aharon Shalom Pinchuk, who served for one year; followed by Dr. Zalman Lubovsky-Libai (1926/27–1929/30); and then Dr. Tuvia Leibowitz-Arieli (1930/31–1932/33). After the latter immigrated to Palestine in the summer of 1933 and concluded the final school year of his term, the two gymnasiums were merged into a single Hebrew gymnasium under the leadership of L. Lampert, formerly the principal of the Yiddish gymnasium. The Hebrew Gymnasium in Vilkomir was supported by the central bodies of the Tarbut network in Kaunas and for a time by the Zionist Yiddish daily Di Yidishe Shtime ("The Jewish Voice").

From 1925 to 1933, Lipetz was director of the central office of the Zionist-Hebrew Tarbut education network in Lithuania. He was one of the initiators of the Hebrew dramatic studio in Kaunas. From 1932 to 1933, he edited the network’s weekly publication, Olamenu ("Our World").

Lipetz was among the founders and leaders of the World Hebrew Union, a volunteer and intellectual organization established in Berlin in 1931 by activists from the Tarbut school network in Poland, alongside writers such as Hayim Nahman Bialik, Shaul Tchernichovsky, Zvi Zohar, Shimon Rabidovitz, and others. The organization’s goal was to promote the Hebrew language and cultural activity in the diaspora. (After the establishment of the State of Israel, the Union focused on publishing books and periodicals, holding congresses, and nurturing the Hebrew language in selected countries.) He later helped lead the Tel Aviv chapter of the Union in the early 1930s.

He was a delegate of the Hebrew movement at the 15th Zionist Congress (Basel, 1927), 17th Congress (Basel, 1931), and 18th Congress (Prague, 1933).

In 1933, he immigrated to the Land of Israel. From 1935 to 1947, he served as a teacher and principal of a private high school in Tel Aviv.

From 1947 to 1951, he managed Am Oved, a publishing house founded in 1942 by the Histadrut labor federation at the initiative of Berl Katzenelson.

In 1955, he established the publishing house Am HaSefer, whose literary director would later be his son, Aharon Amir. The publishing house operated on the ground floor of “Gross House” at 9 Bialik Street, a building constructed in 1928 known for its eclectic architectural style. At Am HaSefer, Aharon Amir published his extensive translations, including Winston Churchill’s The Second World War and A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.

Dov Lipetz was one of the initiators of the project to commemorate Lithuanian Jewry and a co-editor of the memorial book Jewish Lithuania (Yahadut Lita).

From: Wikipedia