Don’t Be Selfish

Born in Brańsk, near Bielsk Podolski (today in Poland), Joseph (Yosef) Heftman received a traditional education before attending gymnasium. In 1910, Heftman moved to Warsaw to work for Ha-Tsefirah, which had published his first story when he was only twelve years old. While in Warsaw, Heftman also worked for the Yiddish journal Moment under the pseudonyms “A Mentsh” and “Emanuel,” and for He-Ḥaluts, a bilingual (Yiddish and Hebrew) biweekly that was the organ of the Zionist youth-pioneer movement of the same name. Heftman immigrated to Palestine in 1920 and was soon elected secretary-general of the Palestinian Jewish National Council (Va‘ad Le’umi). He returned to Europe and worked as an editor for Hebrew newspapers before settling permanently in Palestine in 1934. From then on, Heftman was a journalist, editing the daily paper Ha-Boker and chairing a professional association for Israeli journalists. Alongside his involvement in politics and journalism, he also wrote children’s literature and song lyrics early in his career. He died in Tel Aviv.