author agricultural worker Zionist pioneer
Zemach was born in 1887 in Płońsk, Poland, then part of the Russian Empire, and was a descendant of Rabbi Avraham Gombiner (known as the "Magen Avraham") and his descendant, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch HaLevi of Plonsk (known as the "Plant (Zemach) of Avraham", from where Zemach"s surname originates).
Zemach received a traditional Jewish education at cheder and beit midrash. In 1900, at the age of 14, Ben-Gurion and Zemach founded a Zionist youth association in Płońsk, under the name Ezra Association, whose members spoke only Hebrew. In 1904, Zemach emigrated to Ottoman Palestine.
He worked as an agricultural worker for five years.
In 1905, he was among the founders of the Hapoel Hatzair Zionist organization. From 1909 to 1914, Zemach studied agriculture, literature and philosophy in France.
He was engaged in literary work in Warsaw and later on in Odessa. In 1921, he returned to then British-administered Palestine.
He wrote a number of book sand articles on agriculture.
He was also a literary critic and edited the literary journal Maazanim.
