Laetsky-Bertoldi Yakov(Jakov) Zeev Wulf (Vulf) Elyasovich (Vulf-Vilhelm) (literary pseudonym Bertoldi) (1881, Kyiv – 1940, Tel Aviv) — publicist, political figure.

Shortly after his birth, his parents, fleeing pogroms, moved to Riga. Laetsky-Bertoldi graduated from a Realschule and studied at the Riga Polytechnic Institute, from which he was expelled in 1901 for participating in student unrest. He continued his education in Berlin, where he joined the group of socialist Zionists “Kherus”.

In 1902, he returned to Russia, lived in Dvinsk (now Daugavpils), and joined the group “Vozrozhdenie” (Renaissance). He soon became one of the ideologists of the Socialist-Zionist Party. He carried out party work in Vilna, Riga, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Minsk, and other cities.

After the February Revolution of 1917, he was one of the founders and leaders of the Jewish People’s Party. In 1918, he served as Minister for Jewish Affairs in the government of the Ukrainian Central Rada, but resigned after Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky came to power.

That same year, he founded the Jewish publishing house “Folksfarlag” in Kyiv, which issued a collection of his journalistic works “Erdgeist” (“The Spirit of the Land”) and the book “Federalizm un di melukhe-idey” (“Federalism and the State Idea”), both published in 1918. He also wrote extensively about Jewish pogroms in Ukraine.

In 1920, he moved the publishing house’s activities to Berlin. Between 1923 and 1925, on behalf of the Organization for the Aid of Jewish Refugees, he visited Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay to explore possibilities for Jewish colonization in Latin America. Upon his return, he visited Poland and Lithuania, where he gave lectures.

At the end of 1925, he settled in Riga, publishing in numerous periodicals, issuing pamphlets on political topics, and travel essays. From 1935, he lived in Eretz-Israel, where he published articles on literature, painting, and theater in the local press.