Baron Edmond de Rothschild's help to Russia’s mountain Jews during First Aliyah
On Baron Edmond de Rothschild's help to mountain Jews during the First Aliyah
Many articles have been written about the legendary dynasty of Jewish bankers and public figures - the Rothschild family. Of course, their charity played a huge role in the history of the origin of the Jewish ishuv and the creation of the state of Israel.
"Father of the Jewish Ishuv" Edmond de Rothschild bought land for 46 Jewish settlements, including the settlement of Beer-Yaakov, founded by the mountain-Jewish rabbi Yaakov Yitzhaki.
Now the names of members of the Rothschild family, as immense gratitude to the Israelis, are immortalized in the names of streets, districts, parks, cultural centers and educational institutions (one of them is "Meir-Shfeya). A special place is occupied by the names of settlements and moshavs indicated on the map in Rothschild Park, among them the names of the baron's parents, ancestors, brides, etc.: Bat-Shlomo, Shchfeya, Givat-Ada, Shadmot-Dvora, Mazkeret-Batya, Ashdod-Yakov kibbutz and four cities: Binyamina, Pardes-Khan, Zikhron-Yakov and Beer-Yakov. It is known that the ancestors of the family had double names: Jewish and secular, for example: Jacob-James and his wife Batya-Betti, their son Benjamin - Edmond, etc.
Before the "Maren crisis", the Jews of the East Caucasus provided traditional material assistance to the "four holy cities" - Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias and Safed. It is noteworthy that on the initiative of the Chief Rabbi of Dagestan Yaakov Yitzhaki, these donations were distributed equally between the Ashkenazi and Sephardic Ishuvas. But in the early 1890s, as a result of the "Maren crisis", many of the wealthy mountain Jews went bankrupt and donations from the Caucasus decreased sharply. And the first thing the leaders of the yeshiva decided to do was to stop helping the Caucasian community, which found themselves in a critical situation below the poverty line. In these difficult days for the community of mountain Jews, Baron Edmond de Rothschild helped them through his agent in the Holy Land, Edward Rosenheim.
In 1906, the Geula organization, under the leadership of Meir Dizenhof, bought 2,000 dunams of land from the German Lutherans. A year later, at the meeting of this organization, it was decided to sell half of this land as separate plots to settlers from Eastern Europe, Argentina and Iran. The remaining part, 1000 dunams, was transferred for settlement to the mountain Jews who had just arrived from Dagestan, led by Rabbi Yaakov Yitzhaki. These two groups created the settlement of Wadi/Bir Laimun, which in Arabic means Valley/Well of Lemons, later renamed Beer Yakov, which means "Yakov's well" in Hebrew.
I learned that Meir Dizengoff was familiar with Baron Edmond de Rothschild from his biography on the Internet, where it is said that in 1889 a graduate of the Paris Institute, chemical engineer Dizengoff practiced at the Lyon glassblowing plant. At the request of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, he went to Erez Israel to lead a glass-blowing production for the production of bottles for pouring wine in the vicinity of Zichron-Yakov. But the bottle factory he opened turned out to be unsuccessful and soon closed. And soon he returned to Russia.
In 1907, Rabbi Yaakov Yitzhaki met with representatives of the National Land Fund, who were engaged in the purchase of land plots from private hands in order to subsequently transfer them to the future Jewish state. The leader of the community of mountain Jews asked to allocate land for the creation of a settlement, where a group of tribesmen who emigrated with him from the Caucasus can settle. The main purpose of his activity was to create a Zionist mood among the mountain Jews, so that mass Aliyah would begin from this region. But active Zionist activity in the Caucasus decreased with the outbreak of the First World War. And with the establishment of Soviet power, communication with the Jews completely stopped.
In 1907, the community of mountain Jews in Eretz Israel numbered about four thousand people. About 150 of them lived in Jerusalem, the rest - in various Jewish settlements, where they took an active part in their development. Rabbi Yaakov's sons Daniel and Yitzhak settle with other families of mountain Jews in the settlement of Beer-Yakov (now a city), and he himself stays to live with his wife in Jerusalem. Yitzhak, on the instructions of his father, goes to Turkey to study at the medical institute, but with the outbreak of the First World War he leaves his studies and returns back. In 1917, Rabbi Yaakov Itzhaki, who dreamed of the mass arrival of new settlers from the Caucasus, passed away. He tried to get official permission for mountain Jews to settle in the area on the east bank of the Jordan River, but was refused.
Rabbi Yaakov's archive was kept by his son Yitzhak. The poet Chaim Nachman Bialik was well acquainted with the rabbi and helped his son in editing the prayer book "Ohael Yakov", and also took an active part in the creation of the first primary school in Beer-Yakov. In 1959, Israeli President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi wrote an article "Travels of Rabb Yaakov Yitzhaki from Derbent to Jerusalem".
This is the interweaving of destinies: the famous philanthropist - the father of the Jewish Ishuv in Eretz Israel, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, and the famous mountain-Jewish rabbi Yaakov Yitzhaki. The financial contribution of the baron and his descendants to the development of settlement activities is invaluable. The contribution to the religious spiritual development of the mountain Jews of Rabbi Yaakov is also invaluable.
Located in the city of Beer Yakov near the cities of Nes Zion, Ramla and Rishon LeZion. And this agricultural settlement was born with a population of 25 families of mountain Jews headed by Rabb Yaakov Yitzhaki. After the end of World War II, 700 people lived here. In 2021, Beer Yakov received the status of a city, currently its population is about 32 thousand people.
Source: https://stmegi.com/gorskie_evrei/posts/128292/o-pomoshchi-barona-edmona-de-rotshilda-gorskim-evreyam-vo-vremya-pervoy-alii/