Achad Haam (or Ahad ha-Am) (1858-1927)

Jewish writer, philosopher, and Zionist leader. He founded the periodical Ha-Shiloa (1897), and stressed the necessity for a renewal of the Hebrew spirit. In 1907 he moved to London and in 1922 to Palestine, where he settled. He was a close adviser of the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann.

Born in the Ukraine, he went to Palestine in 1891 and 1893 and became convinced that Zionism needed to emphasize its cultural and spiritual nature, thus disagreeing with the political aims of many other Zionists. He also warned, in 1891, that the Arabs of Palestine were opposed to Jewish political designs on their territory.