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The Beginnings of Ḥibbat Ẓion: A Different Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2016

Yossi Goldstein
Yossi Goldstein*
Affiliation:
Ariel University
*
yossigo.2003@gmail.com
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Abstract

In the spring of 1881, Jewish communities within the Pale of Settlement in Russia and Romania witnessed the creation of the Jewish nationalist groups, regional associations, and other core organizations that would subsequently evolve into the movement that came to be known as Ḥovevei Ẓion (lovers of Zion), or Ḥibbat Ẓion.

Although anti-Semitism played an important role in stimulating the emergence of Ḥibbat Ẓion, the movement's establishment must be understood as having been shaped by two concurrent processes. One was the conclusion of Jewish emancipation in central and western Europe, which brought central figures in the national movement, such as Leon Pinsker, to the decisive conclusion that the Jews could only be truly emancipated in an independent Jewish state. The second stemmed from the poor socioeconomic conditions faced by Jews of the time, particularly in eastern Europe. The demographic growth experienced by the Jews of eastern Europe, which reached a high point during the last few decades of the nineteenth century, required a dramatic socioeconomic solution that was nowhere to be found. Proponents of the Jewish nationalist movement argued that the establishment of a Jewish state would also help relieve the Jews' social and economic plight.

Type
Research Article
Information
AJS Review , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , April 2016 , pp. 33 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Jewish Studies 2016 

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References

1. On Zionist development and the Zionist movement, see Yosef Sapir, Nouochno-Donvlirnoe izlozhenie sychnostii istorii politicheskovo Dvizheniia (Vilna: Garber, 1903); Shmuʾel Leib Zitron, Toldot ḥibbat ẓion, vol. 1 (Odessa: Moriah, 1914); Adolph Boehm, Die Zionistische Bewegung, vols. 1–2 (Jerusalem: Hoẓaʾah ‘Ivrit, 1936–1939). The most prominent historical summaries of the movement are Ben-Zion Dinaburg (Dinur), Ḥibbat ẓion, vols. 1–2 (Tel Aviv: Ḥevrah, 1932–1934); Shmuʾel Yavneʾeli, Tekufat ḥibbat ẓion (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1961); Israel Kloyzner, Ha-tenu‘ah le-ẓion be-russiyah (Jerusalem: Ha-sifriyah Ha-ẓiyonit, 1962–1965); David Vital, The Origins of Zionism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980); and Gideon Shimoni, The Zionist Ideology (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1995).

2. All dates from this point on are according to the Gregorian calendar. The literature reflects considerable confusion regarding the dates of the pogroms, apparently as a result of the differences between the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

3. Stephen M. Berk, Year of Crisis, Year of Hope: Russian Jewry and the Pogroms of 1881–1882 (London: Greenwood, 1985); I. Michael Aronson, Troubled Waters, Origins of the 1881 Anti-Jewish Pogroms in Russia (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1990); John Doyle Klier and Shlomo Lambroza, Pogroms: Anti-Jewish Violence in Modern Russian History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992); John Doyle Klier, Russians, Jews, and the Pogroms of 1881–1882 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).

4. Leo Pinsker, Auto-Emancipation (New York: Masada Youth Zionist Organization of America, 1939).

5. Yossi Goldstein, Ben ẓion le-ẓiyonut (Tel Aviv: Open University Press, 1995), 1:95–166.

6. Vital, Origins of Zionism; Shimoni, Zionist Ideology.

7. Yehudah Leib Levin to Asher Osher, 26 April 1882, A9/85, Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem (hereafter, CZA).

8. Alter Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion ve-yeshuv ’Ereẓ Yisra'el (Tel Aviv: ’Aḥdut, 1934), 3:256.

9. Eliezer Altschuler to Ya‘akov Goldman, New Moon Elul 5641 [5 August 1881], A9/81, CZA.

10. Altschuler to Goldman, A9/81, CZA.

11. Regulations of the “Ingathering of the Exiles of Israel” association, Alter Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion (Odessa: ’Omanut, 1919), 1:7.

12. Regulations of the “Ingathering of the Exiles of Israel” association.

13. Yosef Salmon, Dat ve-ẓiyonut: ‘Imutim rishonim (Jerusalem: Ha-sifriyah Ha-ẓiyonit, 1990).

14. Altschuler to Goldman, New Moon Elul 5641 [5 August 1881]; Zeev Denziger to Yeḥiel Mikhal Pines, ’Isru Ḥag Sukkot 5642 [17 October 1881], A9/81, CZA.

15. Pines to Denziger, 15 Elul 5641 [September 1881], A9/81, CZA; Goldman's reply in Ha-ẓefirah 39, October 18, 1881.

16. Letter from the Society for the Settlement of the Land of Israel, 6 February 1882, A34/18, CZA.

17. The Society for the Settlement of the Land of Israel to Zalman David Levontin, 9 Tevet 5642 [29 February 1882], A34/18, CZA.

18. See, for instance, Yeḥiel Yosef Levontin to Zalman David Levontin, 12 March 1882, A34/18/1, CZA.

19. Ha-shaḥar 10, no. 12, 1882.

20. Letter from Zalman David Levontin to the periodical Ha-magid 14, ’Isru Ḥag Passover 5642 [13 April 1882], Ha-magid 17, May 3, 1882.

21. Moshe Leib Lilienblum to Yehudah Leib Levin, 7 April 1882, in Shulamit Leskov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion ve-yeshuv ’Eretẓ Yisra'el (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University Press, 1982), 1:7.

22. Yeḥiel Yosef Levontin to Zalman David Levontin, 26 March 1882, A34/18/1, CZA; Yehudah Leib Levin to Osher Asher, 26 April 1882, A9/85, CZA.

23. Eliezer Altschuler to Eliyahu Hakohen Kaplan, 10 Sivan 5642 [28 May 1882], A9/81, CZA.

24. See, for instance, Zalman David Levontin to Mordekhai Ben Hillel Hakohen, 11 February 1882, A9/119, CZA.

25. Shmu'el Pinḥas Rabinovich, Moshe Lieb Lilienblum, Yehudah Leib Levin, Ya‘akov Lifshitz, and Friedenberg to Horace Guenzburg, 9 Nissan 5642 [29 March 1882], in Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:13–18.

26. Mordekhai Ben Hillel Hakohen to Yehudah Leib Levin, 11 February 1882, A9/124/6, CZA.

27. See, for instance, Menaḥem Mendel Dulitzky to Mordekhai Padova, Ha-magid 15, April 29, 1882.

28. Minutes of the Second Congress of Jewish Notables in the Pale of Settlement, found in: Voskhod weekly chronicles, 31, 33, 34, 36; Russkiy yevrei, August 2 – September 16, 1882. For more on the assembly, see Dinur, Ben-Zion, “Tokhniyotav shel ’Ignatyev le-fitron ‘she'elat ha-yehudim’ be-ve‘idat neẓigei ha-kehilot be-Peterburg bi-shnot 1881–1882,” He-‘avar 10 (1963): 5–82Google Scholar.

29. On the social makeup of the associations in the large cities, see Yavneeli, Tekufat ḥibbat ẓiyon, vols. 1 & 2, 52ff.; Zitron, Toldot ḥibbat ẓiyon, 1:210–217. On the associations in St. Petersburg, see Mordekhai Ben Hillel Hakohen, Me-‘erev ‘ad ‘erev (Vilna: Garber, 1904), 1:193; Zitron, Toldot ḥibbat ẓiyon, 1:216; in Vilna, see Yehudah Appel, Be-toch reshit ha-teḥiyah (Tel Aviv: Gutenberg, 1936); Zitron, Toldot ḥibbat ẓiyon, 1:214–215. On Odessa, Białystok, and Warsaw, see Zitron, Toldot ḥibbat ẓiyon, 1:212–215; in Vienna, see Ha-meliẓ 1, January 12, 1882. In Moscow, see Yossi Goldstein, Ussishkin: Biografiah (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1999), 1:34–47.

30. Mordekhai Ben Hillel Hakohen to Zalman David Levontin, 3 December 1881, A9/124/6, CZA.

31. See, for instance, Mordekhai Ben Hillel Hakohen to Zalman David Levontin, 16 December 1881, A9/124/6, CZA.

32. Shulamit Leskov, Ha-biluim (Jerusalem: Ha-sifriyah Ha-ẓiyonit, 1979), 40.

33. Letter from the BILU office in Constantinople to students in Europe and the United States, in Leskov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:367.

34. See the letter to the editor by Hillel Mintz and Yaʿakov Brailovsky, Voskhod, August 19, 1882.

35. See the letter from the BILU head office to the Association for the Settlement of the Land of Israel in Moscow, K13/19, CZA.

36. See, for instance, the letter from the Association for the Settlement of the Land of Israel in Moscow to the BILU head office in Kharkov, 9 May 1882, in Leskov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:261.

37. Undated letter from Ḥovevei Ẓion in Nikolaev to Laurence Oliphant, in Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:23–24.

38. Letter from the BILU office in Constantinople to the central BILU office in Odessa, 26 June 1882, in Leskov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:350–360.

39. Rassvet, May 28, 1882.

40. See, for instance, Yosef Levontin to Zalman Levontin, 21 June 1882, A34/18, CZA.

41. Rassvet, June 26, 1882.

42. See, for example, the letter from Avraham Tenenbaum to Ben-Hillel, 24 July 1882, in Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:50–52.

43. Ya‘akov Lifshitz to Yehudah Leib Levin, 20 Av 5642 [5 August 1882], Schwadron Collection, National Library of Israel, Jerusalem (hereafter, NLI).

44. See, for instance, a joint letter from Palestine, 26 September 1882, KADSH 966, NLI.

45. According to Voskhod, some six thousand Jews had returned from the United States to Russia. Voskhod, November 4, 1882.

46. Rassvet, July 23, 1882.

47. David Gordon to Mordekhai Padova, 22 June 1882, A9/92, CZA.

48. Moshe Leib Lilienblum to Moshe Kamiyunsky, 21 April 1882, in Moshe Leib Lilienblum, Ketavim ’otobiografiyim, ed. Shmuel Breiman (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1970), 1:17.

49. See, for instance, the letter from Vladimir Dubnov to Shimon Dubnov, Yevreyskaya Starina (1915), 101–103.

50. Letter from the Pioneer Settlers' Committee of Yesud Ha-ma‘alah to Albert Salomon von Rothschild, 22 June 1882, J41/21, CZA.

51. Laurence Oliphant to David Gordon, 24 June 1882, A9/81, CZA; Eliezer Ben Yehuda to Peretz Smolenskin, 18 Tammuz 5642 [5 July 1882], Schwadron Collection, NLI.

52. Letter from Laurence Oliphant to David Gordon, July 6, 1882, Ha-magid 27, July 12, 1882.

53. See, for example, Zalman David Levontin to Peretz Smolenskin, 18 Tammuz 5642 [29 June 1882], Schwadron Collection, NLI.

54. Letter from the BILU office in Odessa, 1 July 1882, in Leskov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:370.

55. Letter from the BILU office in Odessa, 1 July 1882, in Leskov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:370.

56. Ha-magid 26, July 5, 1882.

57. See, for instance, the letter from the BILU group in Kharkov to the BILU office in Constantinople, 29 July 1882, in Leskov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:418–420.

58. See, for instance, the letter from Ḥovevei Ẓion in Mezherich to the members of Yesud Ha-ma‘alah in Suwałki, 25 June 1882, A9/81, CZA.

59. Yeḥiel Yosef Levontin to Zalman David Levontin, 15 August 1882, in Lilienblum, Ketavim ’otobiografiyim, 3:17.

60. Moshe Lieb Lilienblum to Moshe Kamiyunsky, 21 April 1882, in Lilienblum, Ketavim ’otobiografiyim, 3:17.

61. Israelite, July 12, 1882.

62. Louis Wallace to Frederic Theodore Frelinghuysen, 11 May 1882, in Leskov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:393–394.

63. Pinsker, Auto-Emancipation, 8.

64. Salmon, Yosef, “Ha-rav Shmu'el Mohilever: Rabam shel ḥovevei ẓion” Ẓion 56 (1991): 42Google Scholar.

65. Ha-magid 19, May 17, 1882.

66. “BILU Regulations,” Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:69–74.

67. Voskhod 29–31, 1882.

68. The above details regarding Pinsker's action are found in Alter Druyanov, Pinsker u-zmano (Jerusalem: Reuven Mass, 1953).

69. Autoemancipation! Mahnruf an seine Stammgenossen, von einem russischen Jude.

70. See, for instance, Karpel Lippe to Yiẓḥak Ruelf, 15 January 1883, A1/VI/15, CZA.

71. See the letter from Eliezer Rokeaḥ to the central BILU office in Constantinople, 5 June 1883, Leskov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:145.

72. Pinsker to Ruelf, 23 September 1884, A1/VI/1/24, CZA.

73. See, for example, Yosef Chazanovich to Leib Pinsker, 28 October 1883, in Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:110.

74. Letter from Vladimir Ze'ev Eisman to the BILU office in Constantinople, October 1883, Leskov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:515.

75. See, for instance, Yeḥiel Yosef Levontin to Zalman David Levontin, 27 September 1883, A34/18, CZA.

76. Salmon, “Ha-rav Shmu'el Mohilever,” 51–52.

77. Letter from the Ḥovevei Ẓion association in Odessa, 21 November 1883, A1/VI-2, CZA.

78. Ha-magid 15, April 11, 1883.

79. See, for instance, Shmuʾel Leib Zitron to Arie Leib Levanda, 2 April 1883, Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:86–87.

80. Memoirs of A. M. Altschuler, A9/79, 98, CZA.

81. Appel, Be-toch reshit ha-teḥiyah, 100–135.

82. See the undated circular from Pinsker et al., in Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:915–916.

83. Zitron, Toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:212.

84. Lilienblum, Ketavim ’otobiografiyim, 3:25; Pinsker to Levanda [undated], A9/2, CZA.

85. See, for instance, Mordekhai Eliasberg to Pinsker, 25 October 1883, in Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:108.

86. See, for instance, Izidor Yassinovsky to Pinsker, 30 November 1883, in Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:121.

87. Letter from the rabbis of Jerusalem to Ḥovevei Ẓion in Russia, in Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:588.

88. Letter from Ḥovevei Ẓion in Białystok to Ḥovevei Ẓion in Odessa, 14 December 1883, in Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:133–134.

89. Pinsker to Levanda [undated], A9/2, CZA.

90. David Gordon to Sha'ul Pinḥas Rabinovich (Shefer), 25 February 1884, in Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:147.

91. Circular from Pinsker to the Ḥovevei Ẓion associations, 18 March 1884, in Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:150.

92. Such information was disseminated in Ha-meliẓ 30, May 2, 1884.

93. See, for instance, Ẓvi Harkavy to Ḥayim Meirson, 21 June 1884, A9/171, CZA.

94. Levanda to Pinsker, 5 May 1884, A9/206, CZA.

95. “Program for the Creation of a Jewish Emigration Committee” [undated], in Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:185–189.

96. Levanda to Pinsker, 26 May 1884, A9/206, CZA.

97. See, for instance, David Gordon to Yehudah Leib Levin, 12 Sivan 5642 [5 June 1884], A9/87/5, CZA.

98. Gordon to Shefer, 15 Sivan 5642 [8 June 1884], A9/206, CZA.

99. Ha-magid 20, May 22, 1884.

100. Voskhod, June 29, 1884.

101. Levanda to Efraim Deinard, 18 August 1884, A9/73/1, CZA.

102. Pinsker to Ruelf, 23 September 1884, A1/VI/1/24, CZA.

103. Invitation to the Kattowitz Conference, in Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:269.

104. Yossi Goldstein, ’Aḥad Ha-‘am: Biografiyah (Jerusalem: Keter, 1992), 66–69.

105. According to the conference minutes, the event was attended by thirty-six delegates. Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:273.

106. Druyanov, Ketavim le-toldot ḥibbat ẓion, 1:273.

107. Zitron, Toldot ḥibbat ẓiyon, 1:252.