Menaḥem Ussishkin: Difference between revisions

Line 10:

In 1891 he married Esther, daughter of Shmaryahu Paley. For their honeymoon, they traveled to the Land of Israel, staying there for 49 days. He intended to create a new “fashion” of honeymoon trips to the Land of Israel, instead of to Europe—but few imitated him. He published his impressions in Russian in diary form, later translated into Hebrew in the “Ussishkin Book” on his 70th birthday. That same year, when Aḥad Ha‘am published “[https://benyehuda.org/collections/7883 Truth from the Land of Israel]”—a pessimistic, disheartening report—Ussishkin boldly opposed his teacher and mentor, declaring instead: “We shall surely go up and inherit it, for we are able to do it.”

Returning from the Land of Israel, he settled in Yekaterinoslav (today Dnipro), where he lived 15 years as an engineer and rising Zionist activist. After [[Theodor Herzl|Herzl]]’s ''Der Judenstaat'' appeared in 1896, Ussishkin was sent by the Russian Ḥovevei Zion committee to Paris to seek Baron [[Edmond de Rothschild]]’s support for the struggling settlement of Beer Tuvia. There he met [[Max Nordau]], and on his way back through Vienna, Herzl himself. He embraced Herzl’s program, attended the First [[Zionist Congress]] in Basel, was chosen to the presidium, and from the Second Congress onward advanced step by step to become head of Russian Zionism and one of the world leaders of the Zionist movement. He attended nearly every congress (except the Sixth). In 1902, at the Minsk Conference of Russian Zionists, he served as vice-chair and proposed organizing ~~“Zionist pioneers”~~ who would devote a year or two to agricultural work in Palestine—an idea he had already raised in “Bnei Moshe.”

Returning from the Land of Israel, he settled in Yekaterinoslav (today Dnipro), where he lived 15 years as an engineer and rising Zionist activist. After [[Theodor Herzl|Herzl]]’s ''Der Judenstaat'' appeared in 1896, Ussishkin was sent by the Russian Ḥovevei Zion committee to Paris to seek Baron [[Edmond de Rothschild]]’s support for the struggling settlement of Beer Tuvia. There he met [[Max Nordau]], and on his way back through Vienna, Herzl himself. He embraced Herzl’s program, attended the First [[Zionist Congress]] in Basel, was chosen to the presidium, and from the Second Congress onward advanced step by step to become head of Russian Zionism and one of the world leaders of the Zionist movement. He attended nearly every congress (except the Sixth). In 1902, at the Minsk Conference of Russian Zionists, he served as vice-chair and proposed organizing Zionist pioneers who would devote a year or two to agricultural work in Palestine—an idea he had already raised in “Bnei Moshe.”

When Herzl’s [[Uganda Proposal]] (1903) arose, Ussishkin rose in fierce opposition, denouncing Herzl for betraying Zionism. Instead of attending the Sixth Congress in Basel, he traveled to Palestine at the head of a Russian Ḥovevei Zion delegation (with Chaim Ettinger, Ze’ev Gluskin, and A. Druyanov). They stayed four months. On the very day the Congress opened in Basel, he convened in Zichron Yaakov the first assembly of the Jews of Palestine, laying the foundation for a “General Organization of the Jews of the Land of Israel.” He also took part in the founding of the Hebrew Teachers’ Union there. Returning to Russia, he intensified his anti-Uganda struggle, formed the “Zionists of Zion” faction, and convened the Kharkov Conference. When Herzl died soon after, Ussishkin hurried to Vienna to pay him his final respects. At the Seventh Congress (1905), he helped finally bury the Uganda idea, and was elected to the Actions Committee (executive). His pamphlet Nashe Programa (“Our Program”), translated widely, advocated settlement Zionism: not to wait for a political charter, but to begin building step by step.

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 In 1891 he married Esther, daughter of Shmaryahu Paley. For their honeymoon, they traveled to the Land of Israel, staying there for 49 days. He intended to create a new “fashion” of honeymoon trips to the Land of Israel, instead of to Europe—but few imitated him. He published his impressions in Russian in diary form, later translated into Hebrew in the “Ussishkin Book” on his 70th birthday. That same year, when Aḥad Ha‘am published “[https://benyehuda.org/collections/7883 Truth from the Land of Israel]”—a pessimistic, disheartening report—Ussishkin boldly opposed his teacher and mentor, declaring instead: “We shall surely go up and inherit it, for we are able to do it.”
-Returning from the Land of Israel, he settled in Yekaterinoslav (today Dnipro), where he lived 15 years as an engineer and rising Zionist activist. After [[Theodor Herzl|Herzl]]’s ''Der Judenstaat'' appeared in 1896, Ussishkin was sent by the Russian Ḥovevei Zion committee to Paris to seek Baron [[Edmond de Rothschild]]’s support for the struggling settlement of Beer Tuvia. There he met [[Max Nordau]], and on his way back through Vienna, Herzl himself. He embraced Herzl’s program, attended the First [[Zionist Congress]] in Basel, was chosen to the presidium, and from the Second Congress onward advanced step by step to become head of Russian Zionism and one of the world leaders of the Zionist movement. He attended nearly every congress (except the Sixth). In 1902, at the Minsk Conference of Russian Zionists, he served as vice-chair and proposed organizing “Zionist pioneers” who would devote a year or two to agricultural work in Palestine—an idea he had already raised in “Bnei Moshe.”
+Returning from the Land of Israel, he settled in Yekaterinoslav (today Dnipro), where he lived 15 years as an engineer and rising Zionist activist. After [[Theodor Herzl|Herzl]]’s ''Der Judenstaat'' appeared in 1896, Ussishkin was sent by the Russian Ḥovevei Zion committee to Paris to seek Baron [[Edmond de Rothschild]]’s support for the struggling settlement of Beer Tuvia. There he met [[Max Nordau]], and on his way back through Vienna, Herzl himself. He embraced Herzl’s program, attended the First [[Zionist Congress]] in Basel, was chosen to the presidium, and from the Second Congress onward advanced step by step to become head of Russian Zionism and one of the world leaders of the Zionist movement. He attended nearly every congress (except the Sixth). In 1902, at the Minsk Conference of Russian Zionists, he served as vice-chair and proposed organizing Zionist pioneers who would devote a year or two to agricultural work in Palestine—an idea he had already raised in “Bnei Moshe.”
 When Herzl’s [[Uganda Proposal]] (1903) arose, Ussishkin rose in fierce opposition, denouncing Herzl for betraying Zionism. Instead of attending the Sixth Congress in Basel, he traveled to Palestine at the head of a Russian Ḥovevei Zion delegation (with Chaim Ettinger, Ze’ev Gluskin, and A. Druyanov). They stayed four months. On the very day the Congress opened in Basel, he convened in Zichron Yaakov the first assembly of the Jews of Palestine, laying the foundation for a “General Organization of the Jews of the Land of Israel.” He also took part in the founding of the Hebrew Teachers’ Union there. Returning to Russia, he intensified his anti-Uganda struggle, formed the “Zionists of Zion” faction, and convened the Kharkov Conference. When Herzl died soon after, Ussishkin hurried to Vienna to pay him his final respects. At the Seventh Congress (1905), he helped finally bury the Uganda idea, and was elected to the Actions Committee (executive). His pamphlet Nashe Programa (“Our Program”), translated widely, advocated settlement Zionism: not to wait for a political charter, but to begin building step by step.