Zionist pioneer and Hebrew novelist who first attracted attention with his stories of the grim life in poverty-stricken small towns of Russia. His larger novels, Ba-Horef, Mi-Saviv La-Nekudah, are stories of the futile strivings of Jewish youth to improve their situation in Czarist Russia. In his later novels, he describes life in Palestine. Brenner lived for several years in London and edited there a Hebrew monthly, Ha-Meorer (The Awakener). He settled in Palestine in 1909, and there, deeply influenced by A.D. Gordon, followed Gordon’s ideas in advocating a just society and a life close to nature. Brenner advocated friendly relations with the Arabs, and lived and mingled freely with them. Ironically, he was killed in an Arab riot on May 1, 1921. One of the largest agricultural settlements, Givat Brenner, bears his name.