Nahum Sokolow was born in Wyszogrod, Russian Poland in 1859 and
received a traditional Jewish education. In secular subjects he
was an autodidact specializing in languages and literature. He
spoke German, French, Spanish and Italian as well as English,
Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish and Russian. By profession he was a
journalist writing for the Warsaw periodical HaTzefira. In time
he became the owner and editor of the periodical. He wrote a
number of books, one on Hebrew geography, another on anti-
Semitism. In 1901 he wrote a tract in which he attempted to
convince religious Jews that despite the secular leadership of
the Zionist movement, there was no ideological reason for them
to oppose the cause. Sokolow later translated Herzl's Altneuland
into Hebrew giving it the title Tel-Aviv. In 1918 he wrote one
of the earliest accounts of the history of Zionism
controversially beginning his study in the mid-seventeenth
century. Sokolow was not a member of the Hovevei Zion movement
even though his HaTzefira was Zionist in