Gershon Agron

Gershon Agron (originally Agronsky) was born in present-day Ukraine to Yehuda Agronsky and Sheindl Mirenberg, whose father was a rabbi.[1] He immigrated with his family to the United States as a child. He grew up in Philadelphia[2] and attended Gratz College. During World War I, he fought with the Jewish Legion in Palestine. From 1920 to 1921, he worked for the Press Office of the Zionist Commission. Until his immigration to Palestine in 1924, he worked as the editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and correspondent for several international press agencies, including The Times of London and the Manchester Guardian. In 1932, Agron founded The Palestine Post, an English-language newspaper that was renamed The Jerusalem Post in 1950.[3] Among the paper's earliest reporters was Agron's nephew, Martin Agronsky, later a famous American television journalist.[4]

On various occasions, Agron served as envoy of the World Zionist Organization. He was a member of the Jewish Agency delegation to the UN conference in San Francisco. In 1949–1951, Agron headed Israel's Government Information Service. In 1955, he was elected mayor of West Jerusalem. He remained in office until his death in 1959. During his term, he played a key role in the development of the western sectors of the city.[3] When he took the role as Israeli Information Chief in June 1949, Agron dropped the "-sky" suffix from his name.[5]

Agron was admitted to the Hadassah Medical Center in early September 1959, for routine liver surgery to treat cancer. Following the surgery, he contracted pneumonia and subsequently died of this infection on 2 November 1959.[6][7][8] A year earlier, he had approved the opening of a public swimming pool which would be integrated for men and women to swim together; ultra-Orthodox rabbis of the Edah Haredit court put the Pulsa diNura curse on him for this, and his premature death has been credited to the curse.[6][9][10] At the time, Agron was running for re-election as mayor of Jerusalem, with the vote set to happen on 3 November.[7]

Beit Agron on Hillel Street

Agron Street in downtown Jerusalem[11] and Beit Agron (headquarters of the Israeli Press Association) are named after him.[12]

• The personal papers of Gershon Agron are kept at the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem
• Stephen Klaidman, 'The Jerusalem Post [and the story of Gershon Agronsky (Agron)]', Present Tense 6, 3 (1979), 36–42.