The creation of the state of Israel as a national project of Soviet Jewry
By Alec Epstein
May 2008
In 2005, the Jerusalem Research Center "Jews in the Russian Diaspora", headed by M.A. Parkhomovsky, began publishing a multi-volume anthology "Let's go rebuild the walls of Yerushalayim (Jews from Russia in Eretz Israel and the State of Israel)". In 2005 the first volume was published, in 2006 the second one; the third and fourth volumes are currently being prepared for publication. A review article by Alec Epstein, the magazine version of which we bring to the attention of readers, will open the third volume of the anthology.
Leo Pinsker.
Although the founder of political Zionism is considered to be Theodor Herzl, a native of Budapest, who lived most of his life in Paris and Vienna and only once (in 1903) visited Russia, it would not be an exaggeration to say that without Russian Jewry, the Zionist idea had not the slightest chance of being implemented.
Firstly, almost all the founders of the main directions of Zionist thought were born on the territory of the Russian Empire: the founder of the so-called spiritual Zionism Ahad ha-Am (Asher Gintsberg) was born in Ukraine, in the town of Skvira, in 1856; the leader of the "practical Zionists" Menachem Usyshkin was born in 1863 in the town of Dubrovna, Mogilev province; the actual creator of the doctrine of religious Zionism Abraham-Yitzhak Kook was born in 1865 in Daugavpils; Vladimir (Zeev) Zhabotinsky, who became the central figure in the "revisionist" movement, was born in Odessa in 1880; the leading ideologist of the labor movement Berl Katsnelson was born in 1887 in Bobruisk. Actually, almost all the leading ideologists of the Social Democratic Zionism that built Israel are natives of the Russian Empire: Aaron-David Gordon was born in 1856 in the city of Troyanov, Zhytomyr region, Nakhman Syrkin - in 1868 in Mogilev, Ber Borokhov - in 1881 in Zolotonosha, Ukraine ... Theodor Herzl is considered to be the founder of political Zionism, but it is rather a historical misunderstanding: a decade and a half before the "Jewish State", practically the same ideas were expressed in "Auto-emancipation" by a native of Tomashpol (Volyn province), doctor Leo Pinsker. When T. Herzl read the book by L. Pinsker, he wrote in his diary: “A striking coincidence in the critical part, a significant similarity in the constructive part. It is a pity that I did not read this work before my book was signed for publication. At the same time, it’s even good that I didn’t know him - it’s quite possible that then I would have completely abandoned my work. Highly revealing
Although T. Herzl himself was an assimilated European who felt quite comfortable both in Austria-Hungary and in Germany, Switzerland and France, he had significant problems in relations with the Jews of Western Europe. It is no coincidence that the Israeli researcher Yosef Goldstein calls the appeal to Russian Jewry a "turning point" in T. Herzl's activities. “Desperate to enlist the support of such Western European Jewish financial magnates as Barons Hirsch and Rothschild, T. Herzl decided to appeal to the broad Jewish masses of Eastern Europe,” notes J. Goldstein. The supporters of the circles "Khibat Zion" ("Loving Zion") in Russia reacted positively to T. Herzl's first political steps, which was reflected in the analytical articles of Nakhum Sokolov, editor of the newspaper "A-Tzfira", published in Warsaw and usually expressed the opinion of the nationally minded Jews of the Russian Empire. Three and a half decades later, in 1931, N. Sokolov himself would become the head of the World Zionist Organization (after his death in 1935, Chaim Weizmann would again take this post), but for now, starting from 1896, Russian Jewry showed an ever-growing interest in the individual T. Herzl. T. Herzl's book "The Jewish State" was translated into several languages (including Russian, Yiddish, Ukrainian, Polish) and dispersed among Jews both in the Pale of Settlement and beyond. Russian Jewry showed an ever-growing interest in the personality of T. Herzl. T. Herzl's book "The Jewish State" was translated into several languages (including Russian, Yiddish, Ukrainian, Polish) and dispersed among Jews both in the Pale of Settlement and beyond. Russian Jewry showed an ever-growing interest in the personality of T. Herzl. T. Herzl's book "The Jewish State" was translated into several languages (including Russian, Yiddish, Ukrainian, Polish) and dispersed among Jews both in the Pale of Settlement and beyond.
One of the first Jewish settlements in Eretz Israel, created by activists from Russia. Late 1870s.
Secondly, the creation of the initial organizational infrastructure of the Zionist movement is also the work of Russian Jews. In those days when Theodor Herzl only dreamed of creating a Zionist organization, the Russian Zionists - they called themselves Palestinianophiles - already had a similar organization - the Society for the Aid to Jewish Farmers and Craftsmen in Syria and Palestine (also called the Odessa Palestinian Society, in short - the Odessa Committee ), founded in 1890. The Odessa Committee collected funds to help Jewish settlers in Palestine/Eretz Israel and distributed the money collected through its representative office in Jaffa, headed by Vladimir Temkin, a native of Elisavetgrad. Similar structures were created by T. Herzl (Jewish National Fund, Jewish Colonial Bank), but this happened much later, in 1901-1902. The Odessa Committee organized a network of information bureaus in Odessa, Istanbul, Beirut, Jaffa, Jerusalem and Haifa to assist the migrants. Yechiel-Mihl Pines, a native of Ruzhan, Grodno province, who made aliyah back in the late 1870s, was elected as the representative of the Odessa Committee in Palestine/Eretz Israel. The Odessa Committee founded agricultural settlements - moshavot and small individual farms for agricultural workers, supported a number of cultural and educational institutions in Palestine / Eretz Israel (schools, including the first schools teaching in Hebrew, kindergartens), published books and magazines, etc. Among other things, it was the Odessa Committee that made the first contribution to the fund intended for the acquisition of land for the creation of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Istanbul, Beirut, Jaffa, Jerusalem and Haifa, a network of information offices to assist migrants. Yechiel-Mihl Pines, a native of Ruzhan, Grodno province, who made aliyah back in the late 1870s, was elected as the representative of the Odessa Committee in Palestine/Eretz Israel. The Odessa Committee founded agricultural settlements - moshavot and small individual farms for agricultural workers, supported a number of cultural and educational institutions in Palestine / Eretz Israel (schools, including the first schools teaching in Hebrew, kindergartens), published books and magazines, etc. Among other things, it was the Odessa Committee that made the first contribution to the fund intended for the acquisition of land for the creation of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Istanbul, Beirut, Jaffa, Jerusalem and Haifa, a network of information offices to assist migrants. Yechiel-Mihl Pines, a native of Ruzhan, Grodno province, who made aliyah back in the late 1870s, was elected as the representative of the Odessa Committee in Palestine/Eretz Israel. The Odessa Committee founded agricultural settlements - moshavot and small individual farms for agricultural workers, supported a number of cultural and educational institutions in Palestine / Eretz Israel (schools, including the first schools teaching in Hebrew, kindergartens), published books and magazines, etc. Among other things, it was the Odessa Committee that made the first contribution to the fund intended for the acquisition of land for the creation of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Yechiel-Mihl Pines, a native of Ruzhan, Grodno province, who made aliyah back in the late 1870s, was elected as the representative of the Odessa Committee in Palestine/Eretz Israel. The Odessa Committee founded agricultural settlements - moshavot and small individual farms for agricultural workers, supported a number of cultural and educational institutions in Palestine / Eretz Israel (schools, including the first schools teaching in Hebrew, kindergartens), published books and magazines, etc. Among other things, it was the Odessa Committee that made the first contribution to the fund intended for the acquisition of land for the creation of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Yechiel-Mihl Pines, a native of Ruzhan, Grodno province, who made aliyah back in the late 1870s, was elected as the representative of the Odessa Committee in Palestine/Eretz Israel. The Odessa Committee founded agricultural settlements - moshavot and small individual farms for agricultural workers, supported a number of cultural and educational institutions in Palestine / Eretz Israel (schools, including the first schools teaching in Hebrew, kindergartens), published books and magazines, etc. Among other things, it was the Odessa Committee that made the first contribution to the fund intended for the acquisition of land for the creation of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Although the First Zionist Congress was held, as is known, in Switzerland, among its 197 registered delegates there were 66 representatives of Russia. In 1898 there were 373 Zionist circles in Russia, more than in any other country at that time; after only five years their number had grown to 1572! Since the Third Zionist Congress (it was held in Basel in August 1899), delegates from Russia have made up more than a third of the members of the leadership of the Zionist Organization (the so-called "Big Executive Committee").
Actually, the First Zionist Congress can be called the first only with certain reservations. Thirteen years before the Congress held in Basel in August 1897, the First Zionist Congress was held in November 1884 in Katowice. It was attended by 34 delegates from various Palestinian groups, most of whom came from Russia, but there were also delegates from Romania, France and England. The invitation to the congress was drawn up in Hebrew (!), and translations into various languages were attached to it. The congress was planned to celebrate the centenary of Moshe Montefiore, which fell on the same year, and pay tribute to his work in Palestine/Eretz Israel.
In a speech at the opening of the Katowice Congress, Lev Pinsker spoke of the need to return to Palestine/Eretz Israel, which he called "our old mother." L. Pinsker also said that it was labor on earth that would help revive the Jewish people in their historical homeland. At the congress, it was decided to send one delegation to Palestine / Eretz Israel - to check the condition of the settlements, find out their practical needs and determine the practical steps that need to be taken to contribute to the success of the settlement of the country, and the other - to Istanbul, in order to obtain permission from the Sultan to further settlement of Palestine; it was more than a decade before similar (however, just as unsuccessful) trips of T. Herzl to Abdul Hamid II! In June 1887, a new congress of Russian Zionists was held in the city of Druskeniki, Kovno province, two years later, another congress was held in Vilna - and all this before the congress in Basel! In 1890 - years before T. Herzl's diplomatic activity would be recognized by the ruling circles, and thirteen years before his visit to Russia - the Russian authorities gave permission to create a Society for the Relief of Jewish Farmers and Craftsmen in Syria and Palestine (a key role Alexander Zederbaum played a role in obtaining this permission).
Thirdly, it was the Russian Jews who ensured that the Zionist project began to be implemented in Palestine / Eretz Israel, and not in Uganda or anywhere else. It was seven members of the Grand Executive Committee from Russia, headed by a native of Kremenchug, Yechiel (Efim) Chlenov (later vice-president of the World Zionist Organization), who left the meeting room of the Sixth Zionist Congress in August 1903, during which T. Herzl presented a proposal to check the possibility of creating Jewish state in East Africa. A group of 128 delegates of the Congress spontaneously formed, who opposed the idea of T. Herzl to replace Palestine with Uganda. In order to dispel the fears that arose among a significant part of the delegates, T. Herzl considered it necessary to calm them down and uttered the traditional oath: “If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! And he raised his right hand in confirmation of these words. However, most of the Russian delegates to the Congress did not believe him, and in October 1903 they gathered in Kharkov, where they united in the Zionei Zion group (Zionists of Zion), whose leader was the above-mentioned Usyshkin. The efforts of the Russian delegates paid off: the Seventh Zionist Congress, held in 1905, rejected the "Uganda plan", confirming the commitment of the Zionist movement to the idea of (re)creating Jewish statehood only and exclusively in Palestine/Eretz Israel.
M. Usyshkin.
Fourthly, the realization of the main goal of Zionism - the (re)creation of Jewish statehood - would be impossible in principle without the mass participation of Jews in the resettlement project, which was an indispensable condition for the formation of a society that could claim the right to self-determination. In the critical years for the formation of the Jewish community of Palestine / Eretz Israel - from the end of the 19th century to the mid-1920s, when, in fact, the international recognition of Zionism took place - the vast majority of immigrants who arrived in the country were precisely Russian Jews. Without this immigration wave from Russia, Zionism would have remained just another utopian ideology.
So, having played a central role in the formation of the Zionist ideology and the organization of the structures of the Zionist movement in the country, which was chosen by this movement as a platform for the realization of national aspirations, Russian Jews found themselves at the forefront of the resettlement project, which, in fact, made it possible to form the so-called "new Yishuv" . During the years of the first Aliyah (1882–1903), about 25,000 people arrived in Palestine/Eretz Israel, which made it possible to increase the Jewish population of the country to 47,000. Except for a relatively small group of Yemenites, all the rest were “Russians”. The 40,000th second aliyah (1904-1914) was almost exclusively “Russian”, caused by the strengthening of the national self-consciousness of the Jews of Russia after the Kishinev pogrom, other anti-Semitic excesses and the defeat of the 1905 revolution. Over 35 thousand more people arrived in Palestine/Eretz Israel during the third aliyah (1919–1923), again almost exclusively from Russia. Many of the immigrants who arrived in the country in those years later left it, but the fact remains: it was the Russian Jews, though not in the majority, but still in fairly large numbers who moved to Palestine / Eretz Israel, created a reality in which The League of Nations decided: "... the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine is recognized and recognized, as well as the right of the Jews to revive their national home in this land." And it was the resettlement to Palestine / Eretz Israel of "Russian" Jews (others simply did not go by that time) that forced the League of Nations to decide that "The Palestinian Authority will provide the most favorable conditions for the immigration of Jews." again, almost exclusively from Russia. Many of the immigrants who arrived in the country in those years later left it, but the fact remains: it was the Russian Jews, though not in the majority, but still in fairly large numbers who moved to Palestine / Eretz Israel, created a reality in which The League of Nations decided: "... the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine is recognized and recognized, as well as the right of the Jews to revive their national home in this land." And it was the resettlement to Palestine / Eretz Israel of "Russian" Jews (others simply did not go by that time) that forced the League of Nations to decide that "The Palestinian Authority will provide the most favorable conditions for the immigration of Jews." again, almost exclusively from Russia. Many of the immigrants who arrived in the country in those years later left it, but the fact remains: it was the Russian Jews, though not in the majority, but still in fairly large numbers who moved to Palestine / Eretz Israel, created a reality in which The League of Nations decided: "... the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine is recognized and recognized, as well as the right of the Jews to revive their national home in this land." And it was the resettlement to Palestine / Eretz Israel of "Russian" Jews (others simply did not go by that time) that forced the League of Nations to decide that "The Palestinian Authority will provide the most favorable conditions for the immigration of Jews." it was the Russian Jews, though not in the majority, but still in a rather massive manner, who moved to Palestine / Eretz Israel, created a reality in which the League of Nations decided: “... the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine is recognized and recognized, as well as the right of the Jews to revive their national home in this land.” And it was the resettlement to Palestine / Eretz Israel of "Russian" Jews (others simply did not go by that time) that forced the League of Nations to decide that "The Palestinian Authority will provide the most favorable conditions for the immigration of Jews." it was the Russian Jews, though not in the majority, but still in a rather massive manner, who moved to Palestine / Eretz Israel, created a reality in which the League of Nations decided: “... the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine is recognized and recognized, as well as the right of the Jews to revive their national home in this land.” And it was the resettlement to Palestine / Eretz Israel of "Russian" Jews (others simply did not go by that time) that forced the League of Nations to decide that "The Palestinian Authority will provide the most favorable conditions for the immigration of Jews." as well as the right of the Jews to revive their national home in this land.” And it was the resettlement to Palestine / Eretz Israel of "Russian" Jews (others simply did not go by that time) that forced the League of Nations to decide that "The Palestinian Authority will provide the most favorable conditions for the immigration of Jews." as well as the right of the Jews to revive their national home in this land.” And it was the resettlement to Palestine / Eretz Israel of "Russian" Jews (others simply did not go by that time) that forced the League of Nations to decide that "The Palestinian Authority will provide the most favorable conditions for the immigration of Jews."
Fifthly, almost all the leaders of the “second generation” of Social Democratic Zionism were born on the territory of the Russian Empire, who arrived in Palestine / Eretz Israel during the years of the second Aliyah, and in the 1920-1960s played a leading role in creating the infrastructure of the independent State of Israel People: the first head of the Jewish Agency, Prime Minister and Minister of Defense David Ben-Gurion (Green, born in Plonsk in 1886), long-term head of the World Zionist Organization, the first President of Israel Chaim Weizmann (born in 1874 in the town of Motol, Grodno province ), all other prime ministers and presidents of the country until the mid-1970s: Moshe Sharett, Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir; Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Zalman Shazar, Ephraim Katsir and others. M. Sharett (Chertok) was born in Kherson, L. Eshkol (Schoolboy) - in Oratov, G. Meir (Meyerson) - in Kiev, like E. Katsir (Kachalsky ); AND. Ben-Zvi (Shimshelevich) was born in Poltava, and Z. Shazar (Rubashov) was born in the town of Mir, Minsk province. The definition of "Ashkenazi" should not be misleading: there were practically no immigrants from Germany or Austria-Hungary, nor natives of the United States or other Anglo-Saxon democracies among the first generations of Israeli leaders - almost all, as if by choice, were natives of the Russian Empire.
Sixth, without the active participation of Russian Jews, the project for the revival of Hebrew would have been no more successful than the project for the general transition to Esperanto, which Ludwig (Lazar) Zamenhof advocated around the same time. The revival of Hebrew as a spoken language deserves special attention, because this is perhaps the most amazing achievement of the Zionist movement, which has no precedent in the history of world sociolinguistics. And here the Russian Jews played a key role. In principle, it is difficult to single out one person - the main guarantee of victory was the voluntary choice of Hebrew as the language of everyday communication in the second and third wave repatriate families who arrived in Eretz Israel in the first quarter of the 20th century, in kibbutzim and agricultural settlements. In other words, immigrants whose mother tongue was either Russian or Yiddish consciously switched to Hebrew, thereby carrying out a genuine "cultural revolution". However, it is impossible not to mention one name - of course, Eliezer Perelman, who was born in 1858 in the city of Luzhki, Vilna province and changed his surname to Ben-Yeuda in 1881.
Jewish Women's School. The first institution of a new type, where teaching was conducted in Hebrew. Jaffa, 1903
T. Herzl, it must be said, was by no means an ardent champion of not only Hebrew monolingualism, but also the revival of Hebrew as such. In any case, he himself wrote his books - both "The Jewish State" and the novel "Altneuland" ("Revived Ancient Country") - in German, and nowhere in these writings did he express the opinion that it was Hebrew that should become the state language in the country he dreamed of creating. E. Perelman (Ben Yehuda) went much, much further - even in an article published in the journal A-Shahar (although this journal was published in Vienna, its permanent editor was a native of the Mogilev province, Peretz Smolenskin) in 1879, he claimed that the key to the renewal of the Jewish nation and its life in the future can only be a return to Zion and the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language. Moreover, E. Perelman expressed the opinion that these phenomena are interdependent, that is, the revival of Hebrew can occur only in Eretz Israel, and the revival of the Jewish people in Eretz Israel is possible only in the process of the revival of Hebrew. Having moved to Jerusalem, E. Ben-Yeuda continued his life's work - compiling a dictionary of the Hebrew language (the publication of the "Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew" was started by him in 1910; the publication of this grandiose work was completed many years after the death of its initiator, in 1959, when the last, eighteenth volume was published). The family of E. Ben-Yehuda was the first Jewish home in Palestine where Hebrew was spoken, and his eldest son Ben-Zion (later changed his name to Itamar Ben-Avi) was the first native speaker of this language, more than a thousand years after the loss of Hebrew conversational function. In 1882-1885 E. Ben Yehuda taught at the Alliance School in Jerusalem, ensuring that Hebrew was recognized there as the only language for teaching Jewish subjects. Thus, thanks to Ben Yehuda, this school was the first in which Hebrew became the language of instruction. At the end of 1884, E. Ben-Yeuda founded the weekly "A-Zvi", which was transformed in 1908 into a daily newspaper, which from 1910 was called "A-Or" and existed until 1915. The newspaper "A-Zvi" was the first periodical in Hebrew, which corresponded to the then European standards. E. Ben-Yeuda paid great attention to the enrichment of the language, creating a huge number of neologisms, a significant part of which exist in Hebrew to this day. After the approval of the British mandate over Palestine, it was two immigrants from the Russian Empire - E. Ben-Yeuda and M. Usyshkin - convinced the head of the British Mandatory Administration, Herbert Samuel, to proclaim Hebrew one of the three official languages of the country, along with English and Arabic. In 1890, E. Ben-Yeuda stood at the origins of the "Vaad a-lashon a-Hebrew" ("Committee of the Hebrew Language"), of which he remained chairman until his death. The Committee was succeeded by the Hebrew Language Academy, whose first president was Naftali-Gertz Tur-Sinai (Torchiner), a native of Lvov, who remained in this post until his death in 1973.
All of the above should not give the reader the misleading impression that the majority of Russian Jews back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries made a choice in favor of Zionism - on the contrary, Zionism remained the lot of very small groups of enthusiasts. The majority remained in Russia, where some supported the Bund, others supported the constitutional democrats (cadets), others supported the socialist revolutionaries (SRs), and the fourth supported the Bolsheviks, and if they emigrated, then mainly to the USA, and not to Palestine/Eretz -Israel. According to available data, in 1881-1914, 1 million 980 thousand Jews officially left Russia, of which 1 million 557 thousand (78.6%) arrived in the United States - thirty times fewer immigrants went to Palestine / Eretz Israel, but it was they who formed the backbone, without which the State of Israel would not have arisen in principle. The overwhelming majority of Jews in Western Europe and the United States at that time were very, very wary of the Zionist movement, and if they were ready to support it, then almost exclusively financially or diplomatically, but in no way linking their personal destinies with it. For several decades - from the early 1880s to the mid-1920s - some of the Russian Jews were the only group of the population that was ready to move from Zionist words to Zionist deeds, and it was this group that laid the political, social and cultural foundations of the future Israeli statehood.