Background
Ezra Sperling was born in 1889 in a Jewish community in Slutsk, Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire.
Ezra Sperling was born in 1889 in a Jewish community in Slutsk, Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire.
As a boy, he and his family fled Russia to avoid the state-sponsored pogroms, emigrating to the United States, where he changed his name to Edward. His family eventually settled in Sioux City, Iowa. As a boy – and throughout his life – Edward was described as quiet, gentle, and fairly introverted, spending most of his time reading or writing.
As a result, he took to writing professionally, writing articles for local Jewish newspapers.
lieutenant is unclear whether Sperling was a zionist before joining the Jewish Legion, or if his experiences under Zionists such as Trumpeldor influenced him to that end, but it is certain that by the time the war was over, he believed very strongly in the Zionist cause. At the request of the Jewish Agency, Edward began working for the British Mandate, rising to the post of director-general of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
He used this post to aid the development of Jewish industries and the kibbutzim. On July 22, 1946, Edward Sperling died in the King David Hotel bombing.
Sperling was preparing to leave Jerusalem to go to Haifa.
As he left his government office at the King David Hotel, he was shot at by Irgun men (not knowing he himself was a Zionist). Wounded, he fled back into his office in the hotel. Shortly afterward, the bombs planted by the Irgun men in the hotel went official
He was among the 91 people killed in the bombing.
He was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. (See King David Hotel bombing).