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{{Short description|Israeli politician (1893–1959)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=January 2015}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image               = Gershon Agron (cropped).jpg
| caption             = Agron in the 1930s
| office              = [[Mayor of Jerusalem]]
| term_start          = 7 September 1955
| term_end            = 1 November 1959
| predecessor         = [[Yitzhak Kariv]]
| successor           = [[Mordechai Ish-Shalom]]
| office2             = Director of the [[Government Press Office (Israel)|Israeli Government Information Services]]
| term_start2         = June 1949
| term_end2           = 1951
| office3             = Director of the [[Zionist Executive]] Press Office
| term_start3         = 1924
| term_end3           = 1927<ref name=WWW4561/>
| office4             = Director of the [[Zionist Commission]] Press Office
| term_start4         = 1921
| term_end4           = 1921
| birth_name          = Gershon Harry Agronsky
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1893|12|27|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Mena, Ukraine|Mena]], [[Russian Empire]]
| death_date          = {{death date and given age|1959|11|1|65|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Jerusalem]], [[Israel]]
| nationality         = American<br />Israeli
| party               = [[Mapai]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|Ethel Agronsky|1921|1959}}
| children            = 3
| relatives           = ''See [[#Family]]''
| education           = [[Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning|Dropsie College]]<br />[[Gratz College]]<br />[[Temple University]]<br />[[University of Pennsylvania]]
| module              = {{Infobox military person | embed=yes 
   |allegiance={{UK}}
   |branch={{army|UK}} 
   |unit=[[Jewish Legion]]
   |serviceyears= 1918–1920
   |rank= 
   |commands=
   |battles={{Tree list}}
*[[World War I]]
**[[Middle Eastern theatre of World War I|Middle Eastern theatre]]
***[[Sinai and Palestine campaign]]
{{Tree list/end}}
   |awards= [[British War Medal]]<br>[[Victory Medal (United Kingdom)|Victory Medal]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D1645682|title=Medal card of Agronsky, Gershan Corps: Royal Fusiliers Regiment No: J/4004|date=1920}}</ref>
   }}
| signature           = Gershon Agron signature over typewritten name Nov 9, 1954 01.png
| native_name         = גרשון אגרון
| native_name_lang    = he
}}
'''Gershon Harry Agron''' ({{langx|he|גרשון אגרון}};{{efn|Gershon Agron, {{langx|he|גרשון אגרון|Gershon ʾAgron}}, {{IPA|he|ɡeʁˈʃon aˈɡʁon|IPA}}; {{langx|ru|Гершон Агрон}}}} {{né|'''Agronsky'''}};{{efn|Gershon Agronsky, {{langx|yi|גרשון אגראנסקי}}}} {{OldStyleDateDY|7 January|1894|27 December 1893}}{{spnd}}1 November 1959)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb15972831t|title=Person record "Agron, Gershon"|language=French|via=[[Bibliothèque nationale de France]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307055902/https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb15972831t|archive-date=7 March 2022}}</ref> was an Israeli{{efn|Agron identified himself as [[Palestinian Jews|Palestinian]], referring to the [[Palestine (region)|geographic region]]. See also: [[Definitions of Palestinian]].}} newspaper editor, politician, and the mayor of [[West Jerusalem]] between 1955 and his death in 1959.

A [[Zionism|Zionist]] from his youth, Agron joined the [[Jewish Legion]] and fought in Palestine towards the end of [[World War I]]; he had come to the attention of the [[Zionist Organization of America]] from the start, and quickly became a spokesperson for American Jewry.

He then joined the [[Zionist Commission]] as a press officer and helped expand the [[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] upon his return to the United States, of which he served as editor. He lobbied for the creation of [[Mandatory Palestine]] and immigrated there permanently in 1924, heading the [[Zionist Executive]] press office. Lacking journalistic agency, and ambitious to create Zionist press, he started his own newspaper, [[The Jerusalem Post|''The Palestine Post'']], which was renamed as ''The Jerusalem Post'' after Israel's founding; he changed his own name (from Agronsky to Agron) around the same time.

Agron continued to serve as press officer, promoting Zionism, in the new government, and became [[Mayor of Jerusalem|mayor of West Jerusalem]] in 1955. Spearheading development in this role, he died in office, supposedly from a curse. He was considered an influential proponent of Zionism.

==Early life and education==
Gershon Harry Agron was born Gershon Harry Agronsky in [[Mena, Ukraine|Mena]], [[Chernihiv Oblast|Chernihiv]], in the [[Russian Empire]] (present-day [[Ukraine]]),<ref name=CJR/> to Yehuda Agronsky and Sheindl Mirenberg,<ref name="Gershon Agron"/> on 27 December 1893.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G2lAAQAAIAAJ|title=Who's Who, Israel|date=1952|publisher=P. Mamut|page=73}}</ref> His maternal grandfather was a [[rabbi]],<ref name="Gershon Agron">{{cite web|title=Gershon Agron|url=https://www.jerusalem.muni.il/en/cityhall/mayors/gershonagron/|access-date=2021-12-12|website=Jerusalem Municipality}}</ref> and his parents had hoped he would be one, too.<ref name=PresentTense/>{{rp|39}} He received an education as a child based in traditional Eastern European Jewry and [[Judaism]] in general,<ref name=WhosWho>{{cite book|title=Israel Digest: A Bi-weekly Summary of News from Israel|volume=1|page=2|chapter=Who's Who in Israel: Gershon Agron|year=1950|publisher=Israel Office of Information|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aFg8AQAAIAAJ}}</ref> before he immigrated with his family to the United States in 1906.<ref name=CJR/><ref name=SilverMedding>{{cite book|editor-last=Medding|editor-first=Peter Y.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NaBffyGfqQUC|title=Studies in Contemporary Jewry: Volume XVIII: Jews and Violence: Images, Ideologies, Realities|date=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-534778-4|location=Cary|oclc=960165908|chapter=Fighting for Palestine and Crimea: Two Jewish Friends from Philadelphia during the First World War and the 1920s|last=Silver|first=Matthew|author-link=Matthew Silver (historian)|pages=201–216}}</ref>{{rp|201}} He grew up in [[Philadelphia]],<ref name=SilverFoundingFather>{{cite news|url=https://www.jpost.com/arts-and-culture/books/a-founding-father|title=A founding father|date=28 December 2006|last=Silver|first=Matthew|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post|access-date=17 January 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818090748/https://www.jpost.com/arts-and-culture/books/a-founding-father|archive-date=18 August 2016}} Excerpted from {{cite book|author=Matthew Silver|title=First Contact: Origins of the American-Israeli Connection|year=2006|publisher=The Graduate Group}}</ref> where he attended Mishkan Israel Talmudic School and Brown Preparatory School,<ref name=WWW4561>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wg7YAAAAMAAJ|title=Who was who|date=1961|publisher=A. & C. Black|page=19}} and {{cite book|title=Who's Who: An Annual Biographical Dictionary With Which Is Incorporated "Men And Women Of The Time"|year=1945|author=Adam and Charles Black|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.35870|page=21}}</ref> and became friends with [[Israel Goldstein]].<ref name=Goldstein>{{cite book|last=Goldstein|first=Israel|title=My World as a Jew: the memoirs of Israel Goldstein|date=1984|publisher=Herzl Press|isbn=0-8453-4765-9|location=New York|oclc=9083972}}</ref>{{rp|109}} When they were fourteen, Agron and Goldstein founded Philadelphia's Zionist boys' club.<ref name=SFMayor/> The family later lived in New York, where Agron worked pushing a handcart in the [[Garment District, Manhattan|Garment District]].<ref name=PresentTense/>{{rp|39}}

He attended several universities, all in Philadelphia: [[Temple University]],<ref name=CJR/><ref name=NYTObit/> [[Gratz College]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Leadership & Notable Alumni - Gratz College|url=https://www.gratz.edu/gala-126/leadership-notable-alumni|access-date=2022-01-14|website=Gratz}}</ref> [[Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning|Dropsie College]], and the [[University of Pennsylvania]]. His university education introduced him to the [[Western world]],<ref name=WhosWho/> but he never became fully [[Americanization (immigration)|Americanized]].<ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|201}} He was a firm [[Labor Zionist]], which influenced his choice to attend Temple University in 1914;<ref name=Zvielli/><ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|201}} by 1917, he was a strong critic of Labor Zionism and was a [[General Zionists|General Zionist]].<ref name=Frank>{{cite magazine|magazine=The American Zionist|publisher=Zionist Organization of America|year=1970|volume=60|issue=6|title=Zionist Marranos and Anti-Zionist Uncles|page=37|last=Frank|first=M. Z.|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_american-zionist_1970-02_60_6/page/37/mode/1up}}</ref> Prior to entering Temple University, in 1914, Agron wrote to [[Arthur Ruppin]], at the time the [[World Zionist Organization]] (WZO)'s officer in [[Jaffa]], expressing his desire to settle [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]<ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|201}} and requesting advice on whether [[agriculture]] or engineering would be a more useful career path for the Zionist enterprise; Ruppin struggled with a response but suggested engineering.<ref name=Glass/>

In 1915, Agron began working as a journalist in the United States for Jewish newspapers in [[English language|English]] and [[Yiddish]]:<ref name=jvl-bio/> his first newspaper job was writing obituaries and then editorials for ''[[The Jewish World]]'' in 1915, for which he gave up his rabbinical training, and he became editor of WZO paper ''Das Jüdische Volk'' in 1917,<ref name=WWW4561/><ref name=Zvielli/><ref name=TimeBirthday>{{cite magazine|date=1947-12-15|title=The Press: Birthday in Zion|magazine=Time|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,934241,00.html|access-date=2022-03-02|issn=0040-781X|url-status=live|archive-date=2 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302002932/http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,934241,00.html}}</ref> for which he moved to New York.<ref name=SFMayor/> He was also fluent in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]].<ref name=WhosWho/> In March 1918, Agron was a registered annual member of the [[Jewish Publication Society]], and was living at 731 Jackson Street in Philadelphia.<ref>{{cite journal|date=1918|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23601003|journal=The American Jewish Year Book|volume=20|pages=409–609|jstor=23601003|issn=0065-8987|title=The Jewish Publication Society of America}}</ref>{{rp|556}}

==Career==
===1918–1920: Jewish Legion===
[[File:Gershon Agronsky Jewish Legionnaire uniform 1918.png|thumb|upright|Agron in his Jewish Legionnaire uniform, {{circa}}1918]]
Agron joined the [[Jewish Legion]] in April 1918, becoming a [[corporal]] and then [[sergeant]] during training in [[Windsor, Nova Scotia|Windsor]] (Canada) and [[Plymouth]] (England).<ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|205}}<ref name=Montreal>{{cite web|website=Museum of Jewish Montreal|url=http://imjm.ca/location/1691|access-date=2022-02-06|title=Jewish Legion and David Ben-Gurion}}</ref><ref name=TS>{{cite thesis|url=https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/etd/ucb/text/Saltman_berkeley_0028E_13737.pdf|title="Odds and Sods": Minorities in the British Empire's Campaign for Palestine, 1916-1919|last=Thiesfeldt Saltman|first=Julian|institution=University of California, Berkeley|year=2013|access-date=6 February 2022|archive-date=20 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120154806/https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/etd/ucb/text/Saltman_berkeley_0028E_13737.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{rp|92}} Within the Legion, he was part of the 40th Battalion of the [[Royal Fusiliers]].<ref>{{cite thesis|url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10104705/1/Nationalism%2C_discourse_and_ima.pdf|page=243|title=Nationalism, Discourse and Imagination: British Policy towards the Zionist Movement during the First World War|last=Renton|first=James|institution=University College, London|year=2003}}</ref> In Canada, Agron – with [[Dov Yosef]], [[Louis Fischer]], and the Brainin brothers – took charge of recruitment for the Legion, enlisting, among others, [[David Ben-Gurion]].<ref name=Montreal/> Agron was "hand-picked from the beginning" to be the spokesman of the American Jews, and his progress was of import to [[Zionist Organization of America]] (ZOA) officials.<ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|205}} Jewish writer Moses Z. Frank<ref>{{cite web|url=https://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no2008088192/|title=Frank, M. Z. (Moses Zebi) 1897- |website=World Cat Identities|access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref> noted, when meeting recruits in [[Montreal]], "Gershon Agronsky and Louis Fischer stood out among all the other volunteers."<ref name=Frank/> Meeting prominent Zionists in London and being surrounded by other young men sharing his Palestine-based cause uplifted Agron and invigorated his belief in [[Zionism]], particularly American Zionism. During his visits to London, he became a [[public speaker]] on Zionism;<ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|205}} he was [[Reduction in rank|demoted]] twice for going [[Absence without leave|AWOL]] to make such addresses, being reduced to the rank of [[Private (rank)|private]].<ref name=Zvielli/>

Agron fought in [[Ottoman Palestine]] in [[World War I]], sending dispatches back from the front for the ZOA.<ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|205}}<ref name=SilverFoundingFather/> In 1919, Agron wrote a pamphlet, "Survey of the Jewish Battalions", for the [[Zionist Commission]], in which he "lavishly recollected" an enthusiasm among American Jewry for the Legion once war was declared, highlighting the Zionist ideals of recruits. His report was idealised, focusing on success and cultural connections, while avoiding mentions of many interpersonal conflicts and other disappointments among recruits; months after it was published, Agron expressed distaste at his own words, including his kindness to write that the English soldiers' fortune to not be stationed in the [[Tell El Kebir]] desert with the Americans was accidental.<ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|204–206}} However, he had written with an "embittered" tone when noting that English recruits to the Legion who did not care for Zionism fought in Palestine, while American Zionist recruits were not afforded the opportunity.<ref name=TS/>{{rp|104}} The positive impression of the British he gave may have helped the cause with their approval of [[Mandatory Palestine|the Mandate in Palestine]].<ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|206}} Agron was [[Demobilization|demobilised]] locally in 1920; he spent his last months in the military working in the Orderly Room and, upon discovering Legion records would likely be destroyed afterwards, "borrowed these papers for safe keeping".<ref name=Schechtman>{{cite book|last=Schechtman|first=Joseph E.|url=https://archive.org/details/rebelandstatesma006978mbp|title=Rebel and Statesman: The Vladimir Jabotinsky Story-the Early Years|date=1985|publisher=Porcupine Press, Incorporated |isbn=978-0-87991-143-0}}</ref>{{rp|282}}{{efn|In this book, Schechtman misquotes Agron when writing that he was in the "49th Battalion";<ref name=Schechtman/> Agron was, and noted he was, in the 40th Battalion. Their correspondence can be read from the archives of the Jabotinsky Institute.<ref>{{cite web|title=IDEA - ALM : שכטמן יוסף, התכתבות עם גרשון אגרון|trans-title=Shechtman Yosef, correspondence with Gershon Agron|url=https://www.infocenters.co.il/jabo/jabo_multimedia/p%20227/21649.pdf#search=|access-date=2022-02-07|website=Jabotinsky Institute}}</ref>}}

In New York in 1922, Agron helped found the American Jewish Legion organisation, serving as its first chairman. The group had the purpose to, among other goals, "colonize Jewish ex-service men in Palestine".<ref>http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/Vol_24__1922_1923.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200413143324/http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/Vol_24__1922_1923.pdf |date=13 April 2020 }} p. 221</ref> He was one of the first Americans to permanently settle in Palestine.<ref name=SFMayor/>

===1921–1932: Press Office roles===
When he was discharged from the Jewish Legion, Agron became a member of the [[Yishuv]], living in [[Jerusalem]].<ref name=WhosWho/> From 1920 to 1921, he worked for the Press Office of the Zionist Commission as a [[public relations]] [[attaché]] there;<ref name=jvl-bio/><ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|201}} in 1921 he was the head of the Zionist Commission Press Office,<ref name=WWW4561/> a position that took him to the United States on the [[SS Rotterdam (1908)|SS ''Rotterdam'']] in April that year as a member of [[Chaim Weizmann]]'s WZO delegation with [[Albert Einstein]], [[Menachem Ussishkin]], [[Shlomo Ginossar]], and [[Mosenson Youth Village|Ben Zion Mossensohn]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Illy|first=József|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LazablSvV8gC|title=Albert Meets America: How Journalists Treated Genius During Einstein's 1921 Travels|date=2006|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-8457-3}}</ref> This delegation founded [[Keren Hayesod]].<ref name=SFMayor/> Agron then relocated to the United States in 1921 to help set up the new global venture of the Jewish Correspondence Bureau ([[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]]; JTA),<ref name=SilverFoundingFather/> based in New York, becoming its news editor.<ref name=WhosWho/><ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|201}} In taking over the JTA, Agron officially left Keren Hayesod, both seeing himself first as a journalist and wanting distance from the bureaucracy of the foundation.<ref name=SilverFoundingFather/>

His activities in the United States in this period were to promote Zionism to the political institution and to raise funds for Palestine. In June 1921, Agron published some correspondence he had with [[President of the United States|president]] [[Warren G. Harding]], [[Vice President of the United States|vice president]] [[Calvin Coolidge]], and [[List of ambassadors of the United Kingdom to the United States|British Ambassador]] [[Auckland Geddes, 1st Baron Geddes|Geddes]], showing to the public that they all gave some form of support to a Jewish state in Palestine. In the fundraising for Keren Hayesod, he said at this time that over $4{{nbsp}}million had been pledged by people in the US.<ref>{{cite news|title=O.S. Zionists Face Fundraising|newspaper=Cleveland Plain Dealer|date=4 June 1921}}</ref> In December 1921, [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]] wrote to Agron, asking him to help a Zionist writer to publish in the United States;<ref>{{cite web|title=3550: Ze'ev Jabotinsky to Gershon Agronsky|date=23 December 1921|url=https://www.infocenters.co.il/jabo/notebook.asp?lang=HEB&dlang=HEB&module=search&page=list&rsvr=2&param=%3Cuppernav%3Eglobal%3C/%3E%3Cnob%3E1%3C/%3E%3Cdlang%3EHEB%3C/%3E%3Crsvr_ser%3E@@1@@8@@9@@2@@3@@4@@10@@7%3C/%3E%3Csearch_type%3Eglobal%3C/%3E%3Cnrsvr%3EY%3C/%3E%3Csort%3ERE@A%3C/%3E%3Cdispq%3EWORDz3zאגרונסקי%3C/%3E%3Cquery_name%3Eidh-appl3_732_264653%3C/%3E%3Cquantity%3E50%3C/%3E%3Cstart_entry%3E1%3C/%3E%3Cnum_of_items%3E14%3C/%3E%3Cquery_index%3E@global%3C/%3E%3Cthumb%3E0%3C/%3E%3Csmode%3Edts%3C/%3E%3Cbook_id%3E146404%3C/%3E%3Cview%3Erecords%3C/%3E%3Cwords%3Eאגרונסקי@@n%3C/%3E&param2=%3Cnvr%3E8%3C/%3E%3Csearch_type%3Eglobal%3C/%3E&site=jabo|access-date=2022-02-07|website=Jabotinsky Institute}}</ref> the two were friends at the time: in 1919, Agron had praised an article written by Jabotinsky<ref>{{cite web|title=3408: Comments|url=https://www.infocenters.co.il/jabo/notebook.asp?lang=HEB&dlang=HEB&module=search&page=list&rsvr=2&param=%3Cuppernav%3Eglobal%3C/%3E%3Cnob%3E1%3C/%3E%3Cdlang%3EHEB%3C/%3E%3Crsvr_ser%3E@@1@@8@@9@@2@@3@@4@@10@@7%3C/%3E%3Csearch_type%3Eglobal%3C/%3E%3Cnrsvr%3EY%3C/%3E%3Csort%3ERE@A%3C/%3E%3Cdispq%3EWORDz3zאגרונסקי%3C/%3E%3Cquery_name%3Eidh-appl3_732_264653%3C/%3E%3Cquantity%3E50%3C/%3E%3Cstart_entry%3E1%3C/%3E%3Cnum_of_items%3E14%3C/%3E%3Cquery_index%3E@global%3C/%3E%3Cthumb%3E0%3C/%3E%3Csmode%3Edts%3C/%3E%3Cbook_id%3E146196%3C/%3E%3Cview%3Erecords%3C/%3E%3Cwords%3Eאגרונסקי@@n%3C/%3E&param2=%3Cnvr%3E8%3C/%3E%3Csearch_type%3Eglobal%3C/%3E&site=jabo|access-date=2022-02-07|website=Jabotinsky Institute}}</ref> and, in 1920, Agron was living in the Jabotinsky house, Ravakia.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infocenters.co.il/jabo/jabo_multimedia/k%2010/150591.pdf|title=Recollections Passover 1920|publisher=Jabotinsky Institute|author=I. Benari|page=1}}</ref>{{efn|In 1920, all male occupants of this house were arrested in two groups for collecting weapons seemingly to fight the British mandatory officials on behalf of Zionism, as part of the aftermath of the [[1920 Nebi Musa riots]]. The first group of arrestees were charged.<ref>{{cite book|last=Katz|first=Shmuel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gF2mDwAAQBAJ|title=Lone Wolf: A Biography of Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky: Book One|date=2019-07-31|publisher=Plunkett Lake Press}}</ref> Agron <!--either was not there at the time or was one of the five left arbitrarily at the house and picked up later, as he -->corresponded from outside with the first group during their detention.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infocenters.co.il/jabo/jabo_multimedia/k%2010/150590.pdf|title=events, translations, records and letters by Eliyahu Epstein|date=May 14, 1920|page=10|publisher=Jabotinsky Institute}}</ref>}}<!-- By 1935, Agron and Jabotinsky had fallen out over matters of political parties; Jabotinsky wrote to a different publisher to suggest "it may be desirable to attack Agronsky" professionally.[https://www.infocenters.co.il/jabo/notebook.asp?lang=HEB&dlang=HEB&module=search&page=list&rsvr=2&param=%3Cuppernav%3Eglobal%3C/%3E%3Cnob%3E1%3C/%3E%3Cdlang%3EHEB%3C/%3E%3Crsvr_ser%3E@@1@@8@@9@@2@@3@@4@@10@@7%3C/%3E%3Csearch_type%3Eglobal%3C/%3E%3Cnrsvr%3EY%3C/%3E%3Csort%3ERE@A%3C/%3E%3Cdispq%3EWORDz3zאגרונסקי%3C/%3E%3Cquery_name%3Eidh-appl3_732_264653%3C/%3E%3Cquantity%3E50%3C/%3E%3Cstart_entry%3E1%3C/%3E%3Cnum_of_items%3E14%3C/%3E%3Cquery_index%3E@global%3C/%3E%3Cthumb%3E0%3C/%3E%3Csmode%3Edts%3C/%3E%3Cbook_id%3E137047%3C/%3E%3Cview%3Erecords%3C/%3E%3Cwords%3Eאגרונסקי@@n%3C/%3E&param2=%3Cnvr%3E8%3C/%3E%3Csearch_type%3Eglobal%3C/%3E&site=jabo]-->

Until his return to Palestine in 1924, he stayed as the editor of the JTA and was the Yishuv correspondent for international newspapers and press agencies, particularly British and American ones, including ''[[The Times]]''; the ''[[The Guardian|Manchester Guardian]]''; the ''[[Daily Express]]''; and [[United Press International]].<ref name=jvl-bio/><ref name=WhosWho/> He was impatient about immigrating to Palestine, though wrote that he had not wanted to return until he had made significant connections in journalism, choosing to rejoin the yishuv in 1924.<ref name=SilverFoundingFather/> At this time, he became the Director of the [[Zionist Executive]]'s Press Office, and returned to Jerusalem;<ref name=WhosWho/><ref name=SFMayor/> the role corresponded to and was also known as Commissioner of Press Relations in the Political Department of the [[Jewish Agency for Israel|Jewish Agency]] and head of the [[Government Press Office (Israel)|Government Press Office]] (GPO).<ref name=MagenLapid/>{{efn|The [[Zionist Organization]] became the Zionist Commission in 1908, which became the Zionist Executive in 1921, which became the Jewish Agency in 1929, which ultimately became the government of Israel. Agron served as the head of department for dissemination of information in these bodies for periods between 1921 and 1951.}}

<!--Expand from source-->In 1924, Agron outlined his objectives to Weizmann:<ref name=SilverFoundingFather/>
{{blockquote|Of course, the sledge-hammer does not do here. It's got to be insidious. Any attempt to jam propaganda down the news agencies or papers' throats would only bring rejection slips. As it is, two or three non-Zionist items make even a downright Zionist item acceptable [...] My stuff, though it may not deal with Zionism or even anything Jewish breathes a spirit of constructive optimism, predisposing the reader to see that in Palestine there is a state of 'normalcy,' where Zionist reconstruction can be taken for granted.|author=Gershon Agron, 18 August 1924 letter to Chaim Weizmann}}

As the director of the press for Zionism and Jewish Palestine, his main duties were to advocate on behalf of the Yishuv to the world, encouraging tourism and immigration through relationships with the global media. The GPO also published its own news media, a weekly bulletin called "News from the Land of Israel", available in multiple languages.<ref name=MagenLapid>{{cite journal|last1=Magen|first1=Clila|last2=Lapid|first2=Ephraim|date=2015|editor-last=Watson|editor-first=Tom|title=Facing Peace and War: Israel's Government Press Office, 1948─2014|url=https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/historyofpr/files/2010/11/IHPRC-2015-Proceedings.pdf|journal=The Proceedings of the International History of Public Relations Conference 2015}}</ref> Despite his international media connections, Agron's attempts at having the [[Associated Press]] carry his pro-Zionism articles regularly failed throughout the 1920s; the United States, where he was initially based and later sent copy from Jerusalem, had a media landscape at this time based on [[Isolationism in the United States|isolationism]], and was loath to publish the affairs of the Yishuv.<ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|202}}

Though journalism was a prominent career among Zionists, Agron was still the only established English-language newsman in Palestine, and was sought-after when local events caught international attention: when the [[1927 Jericho earthquake]] occurred, Agron wrote for multiple [[wire service]]s and filed copy with his wife's name after making an exclusivity deal with [[William Randolph Hearst|Hearst]]'s [[International News Service|Universal Service]].<ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|202}} At this time he also wrote for ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]'', as Jerusalem correspondent, and ''The New Palestine''.<ref name=PresentTense>{{cite journal|journal=[[Present Tense (magazine)|Present Tense]]|volume=6|number=3|year=1979|title=The Jerusalem Post: Alternative to the Hebrew Press|pages=36–42|last=Klaidman|first=Stephen|via=[[YIVO]]}}</ref>{{rp|39}}<ref name=WWW4561/> He continued in his public service roles, being the ZOA representative in Jerusalem by September 1929.<ref>{{cite news|title=Cooperation of Great Britain Is Demanded|newspaper=⁨B'nai B'rith Messenger⁩|date=27 September 1929|via=The National Library of Israel|url=https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/bbh/1929/09/27/01/article/6|access-date=2022-03-02|page=1, column 8|volume=31|number=39}}</ref>

===1932–1948: ''The Palestine Post''===
{{quote box|align=right|width=300px|bgcolor=#bfffd3|Gershon Agronsky ... launched the paper with the idea that it would present the case of ''yishuv'', or Jewish establishment in Palestine, to the representatives of the British Mandatory regime in a language and style that they could understand.|source=–Stephen Klaidman, ''[[Present Tense (magazine)|Present Tense]]'', 1979.<ref name=PresentTense/>{{rp|36}}}}
Shortly after his Hearst deal, Agron began writing the ''Palestine Bulletin'' for the JTA, which was circulated around the [[Arab world]]. He had been told he could have editorial control over the ''Bulletin'' but was not given such freedom; he started considering founding his own newspaper. Agron's want for a newspaper with political purpose further developed following the [[1929 Palestine riots]]. In 1932, he proposed an English-language Palestinian newspaper to Ted Lurie, another young American Yishuv settler. Lurie was immediately invested and borrowed money from his father to take Agron to London so that they could raise funds to start ''The Palestine Post''; succeeding, they ran the first copy on 1 December 1932.<ref name=PresentTense/>{{rp|39}} Initially, it had a circulation of 1,200, was distributed around Palestine, and was predominantly read by the British soldiers and German immigrants; Agron tailored the content to the readers, for example, including cricket results and cartoons.<ref name=PresentTense/>{{rp|41}}<ref name=TimeBirthday/> ''The Post'' was heavily aligned with the [[Israeli Labor Party]] (at the outset, [[Mapai]]) from the beginning, and Agron as well as successive editors made no secret that the newspaper was more interested in advocating for the state than [[freedom of the press]].<ref name=PresentTense/>{{rp|36–39}} It was later supported by the Jewish Agency.<ref name=TimeBirthday/>

Agron admitted many of his Zionist biases, saying that under his editorship, ''The Post'' deliberately minimised the oppositions of Arabs to Israel and belittled Palestinian Arab views.<ref name=SilverFoundingFather/><ref name=PresentTense/>{{rp|39}}{{efn|Under Lurie, who followed Agron as editor, an appointment which coincided with the creation of the State of Israel, the newspaper attempted more balance in its Arab affairs coverage.<ref name=PresentTense/>{{rp|42}}}} Louis Fischer, a fellow Jewish Legion soldier and friend but also antagonist of Agron, was more interested in Russian and [[Communism|Communist]] ideology;<ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|203–204}}<ref name=Frank/><ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Jewish Post|date=13 March 1970|via=Hoosier State Chronicles: Indiana's Digital Historic Newspaper Program|url=https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=JPOST19700313-01.1.9&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------|access-date=2022-01-15|page=9|title=Joseph Brainin Belonged To Unusual Generation|last=Frank|first=M.Z.}}</ref> he described Agron's journalism work as pure Zionist [[propaganda]] and "regarded [it] as a poor career choice".<ref name=SilverFoundingFather/> Scholar [[Matthew Silver (academic)|Matthew Silver]] said that Fischer was "uncharitable" in this characterisation, instead saying Agron's "indirect propaganda", borne from his start in publicity, was useful outreach; Silver reflected that, in the cultural context of the time, Agron dispelled [[antisemitism]] and the poor image other Jewish groups were giving of the Yishuv to people around the world.<ref name=SilverFoundingFather/> [[Kinneret College]] historian Giora Goodman wrote that, in terms of Jewish Agency media propaganda, the ''Palestine Post'' was "of greatest value", saying that, while nominally independent, the ''Post'' was recognised as "its semi-official mouthpiece"; Goodman noted that Agron was held in high regard, advising the Jewish Agency press bureau and espousing that "the best propaganda is produced by non-official means".<ref name=Goodman>{{cite journal|last=Goodman|first=Giora|date=2011|title=""Palestine's Best"": The Jewish Agency's Press Relations, 1946––1947|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.16.3.1|journal=[[Israel Studies]]|volume=16|issue=3|pages=1–27|doi=10.2979/israelstudies.16.3.1|jstor=10.2979/israelstudies.16.3.1|s2cid=144250528|issn=1084-9513|url-access=subscription}}</ref>{{rp|5}} Despite this, and the fact the newspaper had broken with the British after seven years, the [[High Commissioners for Palestine and Transjordan|British High Commissioner]], [[Harold MacMichael]], praised the paper on its tenth anniversary for "stating facts fairly, respecting confidences and avoiding equally sensationalism, snobbery and cheap insinuation".<ref name=TimeBirthday/>

Staff of the newspaper knew Agron as "GA", and he treated them all like close family, though he ran the newspaper "as his kingdom".<ref name=Zvielli/> Among the paper's earliest reporters was Agron's nephew, [[Martin Agronsky]], later a famous American television journalist. Agronsky left the paper to work for himself after a year, but continued to contribute to it for many years.<ref name=Carnes>{{cite book|last=Carnes|first=Mark Christopher|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wZczV8ZxgL4C|title=American National Biography: Supplement|year=2002|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-522202-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Husseini|first=Rafiq|date=April 30, 2020|title=Exiled from Jerusalem: The Diaries of Hussein Fakhri al-Khalidi|page=205|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=9781838605421}}</ref>

When the [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine]] broke out, more British troops arrived, and circulation went up to around 20,000;<ref name=PresentTense/>{{rp|41}} it became more widespread and successful during [[World War II]], when Allied soldiers spent much time in the Middle East. Agron became a [[war correspondent]], covering the [[North African campaign]] from 1941 to 1943; he also visited Turkey in 1942 and was there when the [[MV Struma|MV ''Struma'']], carrying Jewish refugees from Europe, [[Struma disaster|sank]], which he blamed on the Allies. The ''Post'', in part because of British mandatory policy in Palestine, made efforts to serve as an anti-Nazi "fighting paper", but the sides did not always agree: continuing to report on Arab terrorism saw an issue censored in 1936, and writing scathing articles against the [[White Paper of 1939]] (the British imposing more restrictions on Jews living in Palestine) and deportations to [[Mauritius]] left the published newspaper full of white blank spaces. It was these efforts that saw the ''Post'' "practically replace the Mandatory Government's information office as the most dependable source of information for the foreign press", though employees of the newspaper found getting to work increasingly difficult due to frequent [[curfew]]s and encounters with [[British Army|Army]] and [[Palestine Police Force|police]] patrols.<ref name=Zvielli/>

In June 1945, following World War II, [[Hans Morgenthau]] requested Agron write to US president [[Harry S. Truman]] to update him on the mood of the Jews in Palestine, particularly in response to the White Paper of 1939. Agron affirmed to Morgenthau that should the Allies show support for Zionist resolution in Palestine there would be "no trouble" with the Arabs.<ref>{{cite book|last=Penkower|first=Monty Noam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sLFFEAAAQBAJ|title=After the Holocaust|date=2021-10-12|publisher=Academic Studies Press|isbn=978-1-64469-681-1}}</ref>

[[File:Palestine Post Bombing.jpg|thumb|Aftermath of the ''Palestine Post'' bombing]]
During the [[1947–1949 Palestine war]], the newspaper published editions daily (except the [[Sabbath#Judaism|Sabbath]]) and was said to be vital for morale. The offices were frequently targets of attacks by the [[Arab Legion]] because of its influence.<ref name=Underground/><ref name=Zvielli/> With few exceptions, Agron went in to the offices every day, which he called "the daily gamble".<ref name=Underground>{{cite book|last=Stone|first=I. F.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8VctBgAAQBAJ|title=Underground to Palestine: And Other Writing on Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East|date=2015-03-03|publisher=Open Road Media|isbn=978-1-4976-9801-7}}</ref> On 1 February 1948, the office building was the target of a truck bombing, which killed three people; Agron had not been in his office. Though not as severely, it was hit many times and became "one of the Arabs' favorite targets".<ref name=SFMayor/> The next day's edition was still printed, though short; the bombing, and the rumour that British officers may have helped the Arabs execute it, saw the Yishuv turn Jerusalem into a front line, closing the streets and manning them. Agron refused to leave Jerusalem, and work continued in the destroyed offices with a new printing press located elsewhere and underground – sometimes it was printed in [[Tel Aviv]].<ref name=Zvielli/>

The newspaper was renamed ''[[The Jerusalem Post]]'' on 13 May 1950, celebrating [[Israel Independence Day]] shortly after the creation of the state of Israel.<ref name=Zvielli/><ref name="jvl-bio">{{cite web|website=The Pedagogic Center, The Department for Jewish Zionist Education, [[Jewish Agency for Israel]]|url=http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/people/BIOS/agron.html|title=Gershon Agron|access-date=January 17, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030728184342/http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/people/BIOS/agron.html|archive-date=28 July 2003}}<br />Part-reproduced in {{cite book|last1=Medoff|first1=Rafael|last2=Waxman|first2=Chaim I.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aPLFkFy5P7YC|title=The A to Z of Zionism|date=2009-09-28|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-7052-9|page=3}}</ref> No longer needing to remain pro-British, the purpose of the newspaper also changed, and the board took advantage of the fact that it would be the only local Palestinian news that most foreign diplomats could read, turning it into a "key vehicle" defending Israel.<ref name=PresentTense/>{{rp|41}}

<!--Best place?-->On various occasions, Agron served as envoy of the WZO, and he was a delegate at [[World Zionist Congress|International Zionist Congresses]]. In 1927, he represented the WZO at the International Reclamation Conference in Honolulu, and he was a member of the 1945 Jewish Agency delegation to the [[United Nations Conference on International Organization]] in [[San Francisco]] that saw the [[United Nations]] founded. He held special commissions for investigating conditions of Jews in Palestine, [[Thessaloniki]], [[Aden]], India, Iraq, and Romania.<ref name=jvl-bio/><ref name=WWW4561/><ref>{{cite news|newspaper=J. The Jewish News of Northern California|date=16 April 1954|via=California Digital Newspaper Collection|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=JW19540416.2.20&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1|access-date=2022-03-02|title=Gershon Agron Will Meet Israel Bond Sponsors at Reception|page=3}}</ref> During his mission to India, he encouraged the small local Jewish community to build on their own importance and to help communicate Zionism to people of the East, which may have encouraged Joseph Sargon to start an Indian Zionist newsletter, ''Jewish Bulletin'', in 1930.<ref>{{cite book|last=Roland|first=Joan G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gCNHDwAAQBAJ|title=Jewish Communities of India: Identity in a Colonial Era|date=2018-01-16|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-351-30982-0}}</ref> By 1945, Agron was writing as Jerusalem correspondent for ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' and [[Extel|Exchange Telegraph]].<ref name=WWW4561/> He would also visit San Francisco on many occasions, becoming well known in the city and speaking at local organisations.<ref name=SFMayor>{{cite news|newspaper=J. The Jewish News of Northern California|date=6 January 1956|via=California Digital Newspaper Collection|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=JW19560106&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1|access-date=2022-03-02|title=Gershon Agron, Well-Known in S.F., Tackles Host of Problems|page=7, column=1–3|last=Lasky|first=Nura}}</ref>

===1949–1959: Information Office and mayoralty===
[[File:Gershon Agron, Jerusalem (997009326680205171).jpg|thumb|Agron (third from left) in a meeting in 1953]]
Following the 1947–1949 Palestine war, the Israeli Information Services were created,<ref name=MagenLapid/> something (as "a re-organized and enlarged Public Relations Department") which Agron had proposed in January 1947,<ref name=Goodman/>{{rp|27}} headed by Agron;<ref name=MagenLapid/> when he took the role as Information Chief in June 1949, he dropped the [[Slavic name suffixes|"-sky" suffix]] from his name<ref>"Gershon Agronsky Assumes Duties as Israeli Information Chief; Changes Name To Agron." Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 10 June 1949. Referenced in {{cite book|last=Cummings|first=Jonathan|page=41|title=Israel's Public Diplomacy: The Problems of Hasbara, 1966-1975|date=2016|isbn=978-1-4422-6598-1|location=Lanham|oclc=939911251 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield }}</ref> as a form of [[Hebraization of surnames|Hebraisation]],<ref name=SFMayor/> and took a [[leave of absence]] from being editor of ''The Post''.<ref name=WhosWho/> He had been asked to take the position during the war, in a telegram from [[Moshe Sharett]]; though Agron took it out of duty, he had been hoping to be named [[List of ambassadors of Israel to the United Kingdom|Israel's ambassador to Britain]].<ref name=Zvielli/> He left the Information Chief role in 1951,<ref name="jvl-bio" /> after asking to be relieved of it towards the end of 1950, citing its lack of independence<ref name=MagenLapid/> – his role spanned the scopes of the Prime Minister's Office, the Foreign Office, and the Interior Office, each of which had its own interests – and lack of budget.<ref name=Zvielli/>

He began working at the ''Post'' full-time again on 15 February 1951, allowing Lurie to continue as interim editor while he instead travelled to the UK and US for [[United Jewish Appeal]] fundraiding opportunities; though he was successful, he found the travel exhausting, and stopped.<ref name=Zvielli/>

In September 1955, he was elected mayor of West Jerusalem for a four-year term, officially resigning his editorship.<ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|201}}<ref name=WWW4561/> The position had been "an honor and task that he dreamed of".<ref name=Zvielli/> He took the role after a period of government intervention because of chaotic infighting preventing proper city administration. As mayor, he inherited many problems, particularly facing financial challenges after years of great spending trying to recover from the [[Battle for Jerusalem]] during the Palestine War. Under Agron, there were many fewer fights in the city council, and those which did happen he could reportedly end quickly by reminding the chamber that time also cost money.<ref name=SFMayor/>

During his term, he played a key role in the development of the western sectors of the city,<ref name="jvl-bio" /> bringing infrastructure and utilities to neighbourhoods and improving employment through tax breaks for companies moving to Jerusalem and hiring, while raising money through taxes "collected more efficiently".<ref name=SFMayor/> Despite his many introductions, he is said to have preserved the city's character, a specific goal of his.<ref name=Zvielli/> Historian [[Howard Morley Sachar]] lauded the achievements of cultural and construction projects planned and approved by Agron, but he also had detractors due to his modernisation of the city, with protesters creating caricatures of him in the uniform of a [[Nazism|Nazi officer]].<ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|202}} There was specific [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] opposition to his opening of multiple public swimming pools.<ref name=Zvielli/> He remained in office until his death in 1959.<ref name="jvl-bio" />

==Views on Zionism and Jewry==
[[File:The American Jewish Times-Outlook September 1944 Reveries in London by Gershon Agronsky.png|thumb|upright|Part of an editorial written by Agron for ''The American Jewish Times-Outlook'' in September 1944, discussing the [[White Paper of 1939]] and the [[Holocaust]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/americanjewishti06unse/page/n11/mode/1up?q=agronsky|title = The American Jewish times outlook &#91;serial&#93;}}</ref>]]
A preeminent and influential Zionist,<ref name=WhosWho/><ref name=Goldstein/> Agron had been both a Labor Zionist and General Zionist, dying a ''[[Mapai]]nik'', but also had individual views on the ideology.<ref name=Zvielli/><ref name=Frank/> As a young man in Philadelphia, Agron had been heavily influenced by the work of [[Shmaryahu Levin]].<ref name=Frank/> He became a [[hasbara]] pioneer after becoming disillusioned with the British control over Palestine.<ref name=SilverFoundingFather/>

Silver opined that what made Agron more successful than other young Zionist journalists in the 1920s was his professional rejection of the Zionist principle of [[negation of the Diaspora]]. Though he personally wanted to be part of a Yishuv "that utterly rejected the diaspora", he believed the only way to create and safeguard this community was to engage with the diaspora as well as [[gentile]]s abroad, using public relations and propaganda.<ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|202–203}}<ref name=SilverFoundingFather/> In 1926, he defended the large sum paid to [[Hayim Nahman Bialik]] to undertake a tour of the United States so that his poetry could elevate Zionist propaganda there.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://jcpa.org/text/wasteland.pdf|pages=47–105|title=Waste Land with Promise: Chaim Nachman Bialik's America|last=Brown|first=Michael|journal=Jewish Political Studies Review|volume=6|issue=3–4|year=1994}}</ref>{{rp|63–64, 91}}

On his deathbed, in 1959, Agron assented to an international edition of the ''Jerusalem Post'' being created, which the newspaper said was an acknowledgment of "the growing importance of the Diaspora".<ref>{{cite news|title=How to cover the Jewish Diaspora|url=https://www.jpost.com/opinion/how-to-cover-the-jewish-diaspora-672482|access-date=2022-02-06|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post &#124; Jpost.com}}</ref> In a fortieth-anniversary publication, ''The Jerusalem Post'' noted that Agron's initial policy directive for the newspaper was written as a business mission statement but "was, in fact, the climactic expression of years of thought on the Zionist question".<ref name=PresentTense/>{{rp|39}} However, on a 1952 visit to the United States, Agron is reported to have said: "We [people of Israel] are no longer concerned with the attitude of others… Once, Jewish public relations were a delicate matter… Now, only our actions are significant."<ref name=Friends1952>{{cite news|title=How to Make Friends|newspaper=The Providence Jewish Herald|date=23 May 1952|page=9|editor-last=Cohen|editor-first=Syd|volume=37|number=12|url=http://www.rijha.org/wp-content/uploads/voiceandherald/volumes-1952/05.23.1952.pdf}}</ref>

Agron wrote in 1925 that, to build a successful society in Palestine, the Yishuv required many American Jews, though he was careful to warn that these potential immigrants must understand what migration would mean.<ref name=Glass>{{cite web|url=https://digital.library.wayne.edu/item/wayne:WayneStateUniversityPress4428/file/HTML_FULL|access-date=2022-02-06|title=From new Zion to old Zion: American Jewish immigration and settlement in Palestine, 1917-1939|last=Glass|first=Joseph B.|institution=Wayne State University}}</ref> In his pamphlet on the Jewish Legion he had suggested that Palestinian Jews (those who had settled before World War I) should form the basis of Jewish settlement in Palestine.<ref name=TS/>{{rp|94}}

When Agron referred to Jews and Palestinian Jews, he meant only [[Ashkenazi Jews]]; he thought that [[Sephardim]] were "thoroughly Egyptianized, Arab-ized".<ref name=TS/>{{rp|94}}

With his experience of politics, Agron, who was not much of a political party person, espoused that Israel needed to become a [[one-party state]], finding there were too many parties to work together effectively. His views on making Israel fruitful were that it needed "Zionism, a strong army, good management and well organized labor".<ref name=Zvielli/> Silver wrote that Agron initially took a more assistant role in Palestinian Zionism, conflicted that he had been an advocate for Zionism outside of Palestine for longer than he had lived there; Silver described the 1920s as Agron's "period of existential groping".<ref name=SilverFoundingFather/>

==Family==
{{see also|The Jerusalem Post#Agron family}}
[[File:Gershon Agron, Jerusalem (997008872718605171).jpg|thumb|upright|Ethel and Gershon Agronsky in 1948 during the [[Battle for Jerusalem]]]]
Until his death, Agron was married to Ethel (née Lipshutz), the daughter of his half-sister Anna Agronsky;<ref name=Ethel>{{cite web|url=https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e8070743/Personalities/Lipshitz_Ethel|access-date=December 12, 2021|title=Ethel Lipshitz 5343|author=Museum of the Jewish People|author-link=Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot|year=2021}}</ref><ref name=ChildrenB/> they had married in April 1921 in the United States.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DgkaAAAAYAAJ|title=World Biography|date=1947|publisher=Institute for Research in Biography|page=177}}</ref><ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|201}} Agron only told his wife after they married that he expected her to emigrate to Palestine with him, which she did reluctantly.<ref name=ChildrenB/> When they moved to Jerusalem, the couple first lived on Queen Melisande's Way, later moving to a spacious villa in [[Rehavia]]<ref name=Frenkel>{{cite book|last=Frenkel|first=Erwin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2hllAAAAMAAJ|title=The press and politics in Israel: the Jerusalem Post from 1932 to the present|date=1994|isbn=0-313-28957-3|location=Westport, Connecticut|oclc=27976895|page=7}}</ref> at 4 Rashba Street.<ref name=Comay>{{cite book|last1=Comay|first1=Joan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fxouLp7j7PYC|title=Who's who in Jewish History: After the Period of the Old Testament|last2=Cohn-Sherbok|first2=Lavinia|date=2002|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-26030-5|page=14}}</ref> They had three children: son Dani Agron (1922–1992), who married [[Hassia Levy-Agron]]; daughter Varda Tamir (1926–2008), who married [[Avraham Tamir]]; and daughter (Yehudit) Judith Mendelsohn (1924–2006), who married Harvey J. Mendelsohn and lived in [[Cleveland]].<ref name=CJR/><ref name=ObitCleveland>{{cite web|title=Judith A. Mendelsohn Obituary (2006) The Plain Dealer|url=https://obits.cleveland.com/us/obituaries/cleveland/name/judith-mendelsohn-obituary?id=12960272|access-date=2021-12-30|website=Legacy.com}}</ref>

When Agron's children were young, they attended Debora Kallen's Parents Educational Association School in Jerusalem. An advanced but strict school also attended by the children of Agron's contemporaries, it was housed in a residence of [[Haile Selassie]], near to the Agrons. They did not stay there long, though, as World War II broke out. Agron and other key figures worried that, should the Nazis invade Palestine, prominent figures would be the first targets; he sent his children to [[kibbutzim]], where they lived for the duration of the war. In 1993, Varda reflected that this attempt at protection was naive, but awareness of the [[Holocaust]] did not reach her until post-war immigration. She noted that she struggled to empathise with [[Holocaust survivors]] who arrived, saying this was due to an "unjustified arrogance" stemming from Zionist education which saw non-Palestinian Jews as other.<ref name=ChildrenA/>

The Agronsky children attended [[Hebrew University Secondary School|Beit Hakerem High School]], where Varda was a classmate of [[Avshalom Haviv]] and Shmuel Kaufman, son of [[Judah Even Shemuel]]. She felt that in school and in society, her generation was subject to Zionist "brainwashing".<ref name=ChildrenA>{{cite web|title=אני ואבי, גרשון אגרון - ראיון חלק א|url=https://www.e-mago.co.il/Editor/edu-2928.htm|access-date=2022-02-06|website=אימגו מגזין מאמרים|language=Hebrew}}</ref> Varda was the only of the siblings to graduate high school; Dani was repeatedly expelled for bad behaviour and was sent to [[Haifa]] as a teenager, where he attended vocational school and lived with the parents of [[Ezer Weizman]], while Judith was (according to her sister) more of a housewife.<ref name=ChildrenB>{{cite web|title=אני ואבי, גרשון אגרון - ראיון חלק ב|url=https://www.e-mago.co.il/Editor/edu-2988.htm|access-date=2022-02-06|website=אימגו מגזין מאמרים|language=Hebrew}}</ref>

[[File:Jerusalem (997008872719305171 (cropped).jpg|thumb|alt=Three women carry a large tub of water up stone steps.|During the Palestine war, water was strictly rationed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Koestler|first=Arthur|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wet8CgAAQBAJ|title=Promise and Fulfilment - Palestine 1917-1949|date=2011-10-12|publisher=Read Books Ltd|isbn=978-1-4474-9002-9}}</ref> Ethel (right) is carrying a daily ration of water with Betty Levin (left) and the Agrons' housekeeper; {{ill|Moshe Marlin Levin|he|משה מרלין לוין }} wrote for the ''Post'' and he and his wife lived with the Agrons for a period.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blog.nli.org.il/en/hoi_jerusalem-1948-color/|title = Jerusalem During the War of Independence—Now in Color!|date = 9 May 2021}}</ref>]]
Ethel was born Ethel Lipschutz. She attended [[Franklin Learning Center|William Penn High School]] and [[Goucher College]],<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/178136829/|title=Gershon Agron Dies in Israel|date=2 November 1959|newspaper=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]|page=9}}</ref> where she was elected as a member of the [[Phi Beta Kappa]] honor society in 1917.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kappa|first=Phi Beta|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kINMAAAAMAAJ|title=General Catalog, 1776-1922|date=1923|publisher=Press of Unionist-Gazette association|page=237}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://goucherpbk.wordpress.com/list-of-members-1892-1964/|title = List of Members 1892-1964|date = 12 April 2015}}</ref> In Palestine, she served in public life; she worked with the [[Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America]] and was on the Hadassah Council in Palestine and Israel. In particular, she was the head of the Hadassah Youth Services Committee and, in 1948, the head of the Hadassah Council in Palestine.<ref name=Hadassah/><ref>{{cite book|last=Levin|first=Marlin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_yjDCNPmx_8C|title=It Takes a Dream: The Story of Hadassah|date=2002-01-07|publisher=Gefen Publishing House Ltd|isbn=978-965-229-300-8|page=210}}</ref> This council typically saw socialite wives on its board, including Ethel Agronsky; she took her role seriously, campaigning for children and writing for ''[[Hadassah Magazine]]''. Through her advocacy work, she was put on the Israeli government's Social Service Advisory Committee.<ref name=Hadassah>{{cite book|last1=Reinharz|first1=Shulamit|last2=Raider|first2=Mark A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S9Fm_AQi0k8C|title=American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise|date=2005|publisher=UPNE|isbn=978-1-58465-439-1|pages=243–254}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Mâgnes|first=Yehûdā Lêb|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7A9z54ju7aAC|title=Dissenter in Zion: From the Writings of Judah L. Magnes|date=1982|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-21283-1|page=49}}</ref> During the Israel-Palestine war, Ethel helped to run the emergency Hadassah medical centres, in secret locations and often without water, power, or supplies, to treat the casualties.<ref name=Underground/>

Daniel "Dani" (also Danny), was born in New York but raised in Palestine; he was part of the [[Jewish Brigade]] and [[Haganah]], a weapons smuggler for the [[Israel Defense Forces]] during the Israel-Palestine war, and co-founded [[Israel Aerospace Industries]] with [[Shimon Peres]].<ref name=HLADani>{{cite web|title=Hassia Levy-Agron|url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/levy-agron-hassia|access-date=2021-05-19|website=[[Jewish Women's Archive]]|archive-date=2021-05-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516143246/https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/levy-agron-hassia|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Daring to dream|url=https://www.jpost.com/diplomacy-and-politics/daring-to-dream|access-date=2021-05-19|website=[[The Jerusalem Post]]|archive-date=2021-05-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519044024/https://www.jpost.com/diplomacy-and-politics/daring-to-dream|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Goren|first=Uri|url=http://uri-goren.com/files/crypto_final.pdf|title=On Both Side of the Crypto|year=2010|page=66|translator=Aryeh Malkin|access-date=2021-09-27|archive-date=2021-05-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519044025/http://uri-goren.com/files/crypto_final.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=N/A|newspaper=Cleveland Plain Dealer|date=September 16, 1947|quote=...the problems all of us face. This is especially so in the troubled land of Palestine. It is fitting that Hadassah, which works for development of the Jewish national homeland in Palestine, presents at its opening tomorrow Daniel Agronsky of Jerusalem, Palestine.<br />Formerly of the Jewish Brigade which served with the British Army during the bitter campaigns in Italy and elsewhere, Agronsky is an American by birth, son of Gershon Agronsky.}}</ref> As a leading figure in the Haganah, Dani Agron controlled the secret flying school and its pilots, as well as other aerospace concerns, including around [[Rome]] as it served as a transition ground for volunteers to fight for Israel against Palestine. In charge of [[Mahal (Israel)|Machal]] volunteer pilots, he sent them around Europe and the world to learn to fly whatever planes the group could acquire, ironically including former German World War II planes. He lived in various hotels, finally settling on the Excelsior Hotel in Rome at the same time as figures like [[Orson Welles]] spent time there, as it would allow him to keep a dog; he turned his room into a communications headquarters.<ref name=Machal/>

Later in the war, Dani Agron recruited American pilots Jack Weinronk (to lead the pilot school) and Danny Rosin (to be an instructor).<ref name=Machal>{{cite journal|last=Katzew|first=Henry|date=2003|editor-last=Woolf|editor-first=Joe|title=SOUTH AFRICA'S 800: The Story of South African Volunteers in Israel's War of Birth|url=https://www.machal.org.il/wp-content/uploads/attachments/machal-sa800.compressed.pdf|journal=Machal|access-date=2021-09-27|archive-date=2021-09-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210903172045/https://www.machal.org.il/wp-content/uploads/attachments/machal-sa800.compressed.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Though he loved planes, Dani could never pilot himself. He had always had poor eyesight and, in 1956, he drove over a landmine from the [[Suez Crisis]] and lost a leg.<ref name=ChildrenB/> In the 1960s, he started and managed Merom Aviation Services, a [[Aerial application|cropdusting]] company.<ref name=ChildrenB/> In the 1970s, Dani Agron worked as the business manager of ''The Jerusalem Post''.<ref name=Zvielli>{{cite news|title='It is always better to explain than to fight'|url=https://www.jpost.com/diplomatic-conference/it-is-always-better-to-explain-than-to-fight-384018|access-date=2021-09-27|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post|archive-date=2021-09-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927221502/https://www.jpost.com/diplomatic-conference/it-is-always-better-to-explain-than-to-fight-384018|url-status=live}}</ref> He was also a noted woodcarver.<ref name=HLADani/> In later life, he struggled with mental illness.<ref name=ChildrenB/>

{{multiple image
| align = right | direction = horizontal | width = 250
| image1 = Agrongort.jpg
| image2 = Gershon Agron and Golda Meir, Jerusalem (997009326682305171).jpg
| footer = Agron taking tea at home with (left image) [[John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort|Lord Gort]] (left) in 1945 and (right image) [[Golda Meir]] (left, drinking) and others (Agron is at centre, drinking) in 1953| total_width = 255 }}
The family was one of the wealthiest in Jerusalem even when they first settled there, only becoming more comfortable as Agron became more prominent. However, he crafted "a [[bourgeois]] brand of [[idealism]]" to fit in with the ideals of Zionism and the society of the Yishuv, pretending that he owned and lived off little; Silver also suggested that Agron was very self-conscious and anxious about gaining success, and would want to hide this.<ref name=SilverMedding/>{{rp|202}}<ref name=Frenkel/> In addition, he took in many immigrants to Israel before they settled, and gave many aspiring journalists from around the world jobs at the ''Post''.<ref name=Zvielli/> On a 1952 visit to the United States, Agron "gazed languidly" over the luxurious lobby of the [[Faena Hotel Miami Beach|Saxony Hotel]] then criticised the [[conspicuous consumption]].<ref name=Friends1952/>

Though the family were somewhat outsiders in the Israeli institution, being seen as American, they entertained friendships with prominent figures and were popular in Jerusalem social life: "Foreign and Israeli journalists, Arabs, Englishmen and Jews all met at the Agrons to talk politics and drink tea."<ref name=PresentTense/>{{rp|41}} They were at the centre of social life from their arrival.<ref name=Frenkel/><ref name=Comay/>

{{chart top|width=100%|collapsed=yes|Family tree{{efn-lr|Including notable relatives three generations each way. ''Italics'' denotes non-blood relations. Sources:<ref name="Gershon Agron"/><ref name=ObitCleveland/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e9398901/Personalities/Agronsky_Shmuel_Labe|access-date=September 11, 2020|author=Museum of the Jewish People|author-link=Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot|year=2020|title=Family tree of Shmuel Labe Agronsky 1325|archive-date=June 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603035103/https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e9398901/Personalities/Agronsky_Shmuel_Labe|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e8072896/Personalities/Agronsky_Martin|access-date=September 11, 2020|author=Museum of the Jewish People|author-link=ANU - Museum of the Jewish People|year=2020|title=Martin Agronsky family tree|archive-date=September 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924043756/https://databases.bh.org.il/skn/en/c6/e8072896/Personalities/Agronsky_Martin|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e8069355/Personalities/Agron_Dianna_Elise|access-date=October 11, 2020|title=Dianna Agron 5343|author=Museum of the Jewish People|author-link=Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot|year=2020|archive-date=October 16, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016143222/https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e8069355/Personalities/Agron_Dianna_Elise|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e8071721/Personalities/Agronsky_Varda|access-date=2021-12-13|title=Varda Agronsky 5343|website=[[ANU - Museum of the Jewish People]]|archive-date=2021-12-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231051430/https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e8071721/Personalities/Agronsky_Varda|url-status=live}}</ref>}}}}
{{Tree chart/start|align=center}}
{{Tree chart| ||||||||||||||||SLA|y|FC|SLA=Shmuel Labe Agronsky|FC=Fruma Chana}}
{{Tree chart| |||||||||||||||||||)|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|.|}}
{{Tree chart| ||||||||||||||||||?A|||||||||||||||||YA|YA=Yuda Agronsky (1835–1915)|?A=Agronsky son (1826–?)}}
{{Tree chart| |||||||||||||||||||!|||||||||||||||||||!|}}
{{Tree chart| |||||||||||||fy|~|~|~|~|YAS|y|SM|||||||||||||HAS||HAS=Hillel Agronsky (1867–?)|YAS=Yehuda Agronsky (1858–?)|SM=Sheindl née Mirenberg}}
{{Tree chart| |||||||||||||!||||||||!|||||||||||||||||!|}}
{{Tree chart| ||||||||||||AA|||||||!|||||||||||||||||!|AA=Anna née Agronsky}}
{{Tree chart| |||||||||||||!||||||,|-|^|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|.||||!||}}
{{Tree chart| ||||||||||||EL|~|y|~|GA|||||||||||||IA||JA||JA=Jack Agron (1903–1969)|IA=Isador Agrons ({{circa}}1880–?)|GA=Gershon Agron (1894–1959)|EL=Ethel née Lipshutz (1900–?)}}
{{Tree chart| ||||||||||||||||!||||||||||||||||||!||||!||}}
{{Tree chart| ||||||||,|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|+|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|.||||||||!||||!|}}
{{Tree chart| |||HJM|y|JM||||||VT|y|AT||||DNA|y|HLA||MA||HA||HA=Howard Agron|MA=[[Martin Agronsky]] (1915–1999){{efn-lr|American journalist Martin Agronsky was Gershon Agron's nephew.}}|DNA=Dani Agron (1922–1992)|HLA=''[[Hassia Levy-Agron]]'' (1923–2001)|VT=Varda Tamir (1926–2008)|AT=''[[Avraham Tamir]]'' (1924–2010){{efn-lr|Tamir and Varda separated before 1987.<ref>{{cite news|title=⁨אברשה טיטוריס⁩|url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hadashot/1987/11/16/01/article/94|access-date=2022-01-05|via=[[National Library of Israel]]|language=he|newspaper=[[Hadashot]]|date=16 November 1987|pages=16–17}}</ref>}}|JM=Judith Mendelsohn (1924–2006)|HJM=''Harvey J. Mendelsohn'' (1911–1992)}}
{{Tree chart| ||,|-|-|-|+|-|-|-|.||||,|-|-|-|+|-|-|-|.||||||`|-|.||||!||||!||}}
{{Tree chart| |REM||MAM||DM||MS||GT||DE|y|OE||AMA||JAS||RA||||RA=Ronald Agron|JAS=Jonathan Agronsky (b. {{circa}}1946)|DE={{ill|Daphna Efrat|he|דפנה_אפרת}} (b. 1955)|OE=''{{ill|Ovad Efrat|he|עובד אפרת}}'' (b. 1956)|AMA=Amos Agron (b. 1957)|MAM=Michael A. Mendelsohn (1950–1998)|MS=Michal Shany (b. 1950)|GT=Gideon Tamir|REM=Ruth E. Mendelsohn|DM=Dan Mendelsohn}}
{{Tree chart| ||||||||||||||||||||||||!||||||||||||||!}}
{{Tree chart| |||||||||||||||||||||||DAE||||||||||||DA|DA=[[Dianna Agron]] (b. 1986){{efn-lr|American actress Dianna Agron is Gershon Agron's second cousin, three times removed.}}|DAE=[[Daniel Efrat]] (b. 1982){{efn-lr|Israeli actor Daniel Efrat is Gershon Agron's great-grandson.}}}}
{{tree chart/end}}
|-
|style="text-align: left;"|'''Notes:''' 
{{notelist-lr}}<!--- use either {{Efn-lr}} and/or <ref group=lower-roman /> To fill this notelist -->
{{chart bottom}}

==Death==
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 1 November 1959<ref name=BaltimoreSun/><ref name=JTADeath/><ref name=NYTObit>{{cite news|date=1959-11-02|title=GERSHON AGRON DEAD IN ISRAEL; Jerusalem Mayor Founded Newspaper There in 1932 -- Noted World Zionist|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/11/02/archives/gershon-agron-dead-in-israel-jerusalem-mayor-founded-newspaper.html|access-date=2021-12-07|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> at the age of 65.<ref name=CJR/> A year earlier, he had approved the opening of a public swimming pool which would be integrated for men and women to swim together; [[Haredi Judaism|ultra-Orthodox]] rabbis of the [[Edah HaChareidis]] court put the [[Pulsa diNura]] curse on him for this, and his premature death has been credited to the curse.<ref name=BaltimoreSun>{{cite web|title=Unleashing the Tongues of Fire|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1995-03-28-1995087096-story.html|year=1995|website=Baltimore Sun|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210622182019/https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1995-03-28-1995087096-story.html|archive-date=22 June 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Rabbis to curse parade organizers|url=https://www.jpost.com/israel/rabbis-to-curse-parade-organizers|access-date=2021-12-07|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post &#124; Jpost.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Ben-Yehuda|first=Nachman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LYk6AwAAQBAJ&q=pulsa+dinura+gershon+agron|title=Theocratic Democracy: The Social Construction of Religious and Secular Extremism|date=2010-11-29|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-020840-0}}</ref> The ''[[Canadian Jewish Review]]'' said he "died after a long illness."<ref name=CJR>{{cite news|title=Was Journalist, World Zionist, Mayor Of Jerusalem|newspaper=Canadian Jewish Review|date=20 November 1959|pages=1; 13|via=SFU Digitized Newspapers|url=https://newspapers.lib.sfu.ca/islandora/object/mcc-cjr:6271|access-date=2022-01-07}}</ref> At the time of his death, Agron was running for re-election as mayor of Jerusalem, with the vote set to happen on 3 November 1959.<ref name=JTADeath>{{cite web|date=1959-11-02|title=Gershon Agron, Mayor of Jerusalem, Dies; Israel Government Mourns|url=https://www.jta.org/archive/gershon-agron-mayor-of-jerusalem-dies-israel-government-mourns|access-date=2021-12-07|website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency}}</ref>

He received a [[state funeral]], attended by over 40,000 people, with a eulogy from Sharett calling him "one of the greatest personalities of the Zionist movement".<ref name=Zvielli/> He was buried at [[Har HaMenuchot]], near the gravesites of [[Peretz Smolenskin]] and [[Joseph Klausner]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Gershon Agron Died|language=Hebrew|newspaper=[[HaTzofe]]|date=2 November 1959|url= https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hzh/1959/11/02/01/article/76/?e=-------he-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxTI--------------1|page=4}}</ref>

==Legacy and impact==
[[File:Agron Street Jerusalem inauguration.jpg|thumb|The opening of Gershon Agron Street took place in October 1960; Agron's mayoral successor [[Mordechai Ish-Shalom]] is standing in the foreground.]]
{{ill|Agron Street|he|רחוב אגרון|commons|Category:Gershon Agron Street (Jerusalem)}} in downtown Jerusalem<ref>{{cite news |author=Stuart Schoffman |date=1 October 2009 |url=https://www.juf.org/news/view.aspx?id=48696 |title=Streets of the Westerners |publisher=JUF News |access-date=17 January 2015}}</ref> and [[Agron House]], the former headquarters of the [[Mass media in Israel|Israeli Press Association]], are named after him.<ref name=Goldstein/>{{rp|109}} The cornerstone of Agron House was laid on 10 October 1961 by Sharett;<ref>{{cite news|title=From Our Archives|page=14|url=https://www.pressreader.com/israel/jerusalem-post/20111010/282398396170877|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post|date=10 October 2011|last=Zvielli|first=Alexander}}</ref> in a tribute at the cornerstone ceremony, Goldstein said Agron was "the journalist ''par excellence''", also praising his services as an ambassador for Israel and Zionism:<ref name=Goldstein/>{{rp|110}}

{{blockquote|Wherever he came, he not only reflected the light of Zion but radiated it to Jews and non-Jews. His warm, sparkling personality captured many hearts and his brilliant, untrammeled approach captured many minds. Gershon disarmed antagonists, converted neutrals into partisans, and partisans into enthusiasts.}}

In 1950, he was said to be "one of Yishuv's most influential and courageous spokesmen".<ref name=WhosWho/> In 2012, [[Ulf Hannerz]] said Agron was "a culture hero of Israeli journalism".<ref>{{cite book|last=Hannerz|first=Ulf|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CXCHkyeHsW0C|title=Foreign News: Exploring the World of Foreign Correspondents|date=2012-04-26|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-92253-9|page=61}}</ref>

The personal papers of Gershon Agron are kept at the [[Central Zionist Archives]] in Jerusalem.<ref>{{cite web|title=אתר הארכיון הציוני המרכזי בירושלים - הארכיון הציוני|url=http://www.zionistarchives.org.il/Pages/Default.aspx|access-date=2021-12-17|website=Central Zionist Archives}}</ref> His diaries were posthumously published in 1964.<ref name=jvl-bio/>

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book|title=Jewish Reclamation of Palestine|last=Agronsky|first=Gershon|year=1927|oclc=56843116}}
*{{cite book|title=The View of a Palestinian: A Letter from one American in Palestine to another|last=Agronsky|first=Gershon|year=1928|oclc=22032319}}
*{{cite book|title=Ten Years of Zionist Activity in Palestine|last=Agronsky|first=Gershon|year=1928|oclc=173026923}}
*{{cite book|title=Palestine After the Mandate|last=Agronsky|first=Gershon|year=1948|oclc=1117113179}}
*{{cite book|title=Portrait of Jerusalem: Contemporary Views of the Holy City|last=Agron|first=Gershon|year=1956|oclc=19295487}}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Mayors of Jerusalem}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agron, Gershon}}
[[Category:1893 births]]
[[Category:1959 deaths]]
[[Category:Agron family|Gershon]]
[[Category:American emigrants to Mandatory Palestine]]
[[Category:American Zionists]]
[[Category:Ashkenazi Jews from Ottoman Palestine]]
[[Category:Ashkenazi Jews in Mandatory Palestine]]
[[Category:The Christian Science Monitor people]]
[[Category:Death conspiracy theories]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Israel]]
[[Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States]]
[[Category:Gratz College]]
[[Category:The Jerusalem Post editors]]
[[Category:Jewish Legion personnel]]
[[Category:Mayors of Jerusalem]]
[[Category:Ukrainian Jews]]
[[Category:Ukrainian Zionists]]
[[Category:Writers from Philadelphia]]
[[Category:Writers on Zionism]]
[[Category:Yishuv journalists]]
[[Category:Zionists from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Burials at Har HaMenuchot]]
[[Category:Immigrants of the Fourth Aliyah]]
[[Category:People from Mena]]