Zeev Latsky

Ya'akov Ze'ev Latsky ("Bertoldi") (? - 1940) was a Jewish Russian political and Yiddishist activist and briefly a Minister in the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1918.

First a member of Herut round 1901, he joined in December 1904 the new Zionist Socialist Workers Party to whose Central Committee he was elected in Odessa. He was closely associated with the theorist of Labour Zionism and leading advocate of Territorialist Zionism, Nachman Syrkin.

After the 1917 Revolution, he joined the Folkspartei. In April 1918, he was appointed Minister for Jewish Affairs in the Ukrainian People's Republic, replacing Fareynikte Moishe Zilberfarb. He was succeeded briefly by Solomon Goldelman, then in January 1919 by Abraham Revutzky of Poale Zion.

In October 1918 he was amongst the founders of an important Yiddish publishing house Folks-Farlag, initiated by intellectuals affiliated to the Folkspartei, like himself.