{{Short description|American publishing executive (1898–1953)}} {{Infobox person | name = Bill Ziff Sr. | image = | caption = | birth_name = William Bernard Ziff | birth_date = {{birth date|1898|08|01}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|1953|12|20|1898|08|01}} | death_place = | other_names = | education = | known_for = Co-founder of Ziff Davis Inc. | occupation = Publisher | spouse = | parents = | children = Bill Ziff Jr. }}
'''William Bernard Ziff Sr.''' (August 1, 1898 – December 20, 1953)<ref>{{cite news |date=December 21, 1953 |title=W. B. Ziff; 55, Publisher And Author, Dies |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/504550572.html?dids=504550572:504550572&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Dec+21,+1953&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=W.+B.+ZIFF;+55,+PUBLISHER+AND+AUTHOR,+DIES&pqatl=google |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104064131/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/504550572.html?dids=504550572:504550572&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Dec+21,+1953&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=W.+B.+ZIFF;+55,+PUBLISHER+AND+AUTHOR,+DIES&pqatl=google |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 4, 2012 |access-date=2010-10-16}}</ref> was an American publishing executive and author.
==Early life== By 1916, Ziff was working as an artist.<ref>{{cite news |title=W. B. Ziff, 55, Publisher and Author, Dies |url=http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/370570445 |access-date=9 December 2024 |work=Chicago Daily Tribune |date=21 December 1953 |page=8}}</ref> He would later go on to serve as an aviator in World War I.<ref>{{cite news |title=Obituary |url=http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/453175255 |access-date=9 December 2024 |work=Daily News |date=21 December 1953}}</ref>
==Ziff Davis Inc.== Ziff and Bernard G. Davis founded the magazine publisher Ziff Davis Inc. in 1927.<ref name=ZDTimeline>{{cite news | url=http://www.ziffdavis.com/press/timeline | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061215134959/http://www.ziffdavis.com/press/timeline | url-status=dead | archive-date=December 15, 2006 | title=Ziff Davis Corporate Timeline | date=January 6, 2009 | access-date=February 19, 2020}}</ref> After his death, in 1953, his son, Bill Ziff Jr., succeeded him at Ziff Davis.<ref>{{cite news |title=William B. Ziff Jr., 76, Builder of Magazine Empire Dies |work=The New York Times |date=September 12, 2006 }}</ref>
==Political views== Being of Jewish ancestry and motivated by the power of Nazi Germany during the 1930s, Ziff became one of the most prominent American endorsers of Revisionist Zionism. During 1935, he was persuaded by devotees of the Revisionist Zionist spokesman Ze'ev Jabotinsky to accept the presidency of the Zionist-Revisionists of America organization although he resigned after one year, being uncomfortable with his role as a Jewish organizational official. Ziff remained active with Zionist politics and caused controversy when he authored during 1938 a criticism of British policy in the Holy Land entitled ''The Rape of Palestine.''<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/TheRapeOfPalestineByWilliamB.Ziff1938withPageLinksForTheTableOfContents |title=The Rape Of Palestine By William B. Ziff ( 1938) (with Page Links For The Table Of Contents) |language=English}}</ref> The British Foreign Office declared the book "violent and offensive" and monitored Ziff thereafter.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=vMl0-azdbVYC&dq=American+Friends+of+a+Jewish+Palestine++ziff&pg=PT50 "Militant Zionism in America: The Rise and Impact of the Jabotinsky Movement in the United States, 1926-1948" by Rafael Medoff] University Alabama Press; 1 edition (July 2, 2002) pp 39-40</ref><ref>[http://new.wymaninstitute.org/2004/02/unsung-hero-of-holocaust-refugee-struggle-dies-at-96/ The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies: "Unsung Hero of Holocaust Refugee Struggle Dies at 96"] February 18, 2004</ref> <blockquote>The studied gentility of the upper-bracket Arab leaves little to be desired. Dressed in his ''Abaye'' and red ''tarbush'' he is a colorful figure. His bearing is languorous and courtly, in vivid contrast to the direct speech and often uncouth manners of the immigrant Jew. Beneath this thin stratum, the balance of the Arab population is primitive in the extreme. For the most part it can hardly be said that they have risen above the stage of barbarism. They are, on the whole, of poor physical type and of low mentality. It would be hard to pose a wider disparity of culture, instinct and mind than lies between these people and the returning Hebrew.<ref>{{cite book | last=Ziff | first=William | title = The Rape of Palestine | page = 371 | year = 1938 | publisher = Longmans, Green & Co}}</ref></blockquote>In March 1946, Ziff spoke at a rally of 20,000 participants in Madison Square Garden protesting against Britain's recent reversal of its pro-Zionist policies in Mandatory Palestine.<ref>{{Cite web |title=20,000 at Madison Square Garden Meeting Protest British Policy in Palestine |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/20000-at-madison-square-garden-meeting-protest-british-policy-in-palestine |access-date=2025-05-05 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Personal life== On July 25, 1923, he married Denea Fischer (1902–1993); together, they had one daughter and later divorced. Ziff married Amelia Mary Morton (1903–1980) with whom he had three children.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8AM4zQiGAxkC&pg=PA741|title=Illinois Biographical Dictionary|last=Hannan|first=Caryn|publisher=State History Publications|page=741|date=2008|isbn=9781878592606}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ziff, William B. Sr.}} Category:1898 births Category:1953 deaths Category:20th-century American businesspeople Category:20th-century American Jews Category:American anti-communists Category:American magazine founders Category:American Zionists Category:Businesspeople from New York (state) Category:Revisionist Zionists Category:United States Army Air Service pilots of World War I William B. Sr.