Born 1877. Zionist activist, collector of Jewish books, and publisher.
In the 1920s, he funded the publication of Agnon's first writings. In 1931, he established the Schocken publishing house to encourage Jewish authors to publish their works and to help stimulate the Jewish consciousness of German Jews. The publishing endeavour actually reached its pinnacle during the Nazi era, until the authorities had the plant shut down in early 1939. Schocken himself emigrated to Palestine in 1934 - along with his library and his collections - and resettled in the United States in 1945. Died 1959.
