Yehoshua Barzillai

Born in the town of Kletzek, Minsk Region (White Russia) on the 5th of Elul 1936 to his father, Rabbi Meir Moshe (a rabbinical rabbi, son of the rabbi of the community, Rabbi Elimelech, and grandson and great-grandson of the Gaon of the Penim Me'irot book) and his mother, Matla-Ribka, who knew the Hebrew language and was well-versed in Talmudic literature. In his childhood Yehoshua became known as a prodigy; his Torah novelties marked the beginning of the modern Hebrew criticism, and when his family moved to live in Vilna, he prepared himself to study in a Russian gymnasium, but due to his father’s opposition he withdrew from this plan.

At the age of 16, he married a woman. He successfully engaged in commerce, railroad construction contracting, and banking. He also engaged in charitable and benevolent associations and aspired to work for the settlement of Jews on land in Russia, in order to improve their economic and political status. However, the disturbances that broke out in Russia turned him towards Zion and he liquidated his businesses and on June 7, 1897 He arrived in Israel.

Here he found the peasants in the Baron settlements enslaved to the arbitrariness of the bureaucracy, he fought them with words, propaganda, and in writing in the newspapers HaMelitz and HaTsafira, in which he also advocated to act in favor of the recreational settlements of Gedera, which he saw as a relief for the Hebrew landowners who were free in body and spirit from the burden of bureaucracy. Because of this he suffered persecution from the bureaucracy.

In order to promote the strengthening of the Lovers of Zion movement for the Yishuv, he went to Russia in 1948. He was the initiator and the spirit behind the secret society Sons of Moses, founded by Aḥad Ha‘am, which played a large part in reviving the spirit and energy of the people for their resurrection in the Land of Israel. He toured the cities of Russia on a propaganda campaign for the Lovers of Zion and to establish a stock exchange for planting vineyards for the benefit of the first Workers’ Association, which he founded together with the dreamer-fighter like him, Michael Halperin, in the trends of pioneering and returning to the land, and he won the hearts of his listeners more with the e of faith that flowed from him than with his oratorical skills.

With the great awakening of aliyah in 1989-1990, he returned to Israel and was the stimulating and influential force in the Palestine Ministry in Jaffa during the Tyomkin era and also during the depression that followed. He always spurred those at the top to greater enthusiasm and energy, because time was precious and the people needed redemption soon. When the Turkish government opened the gates of the country to the Hebrew aliyah, he made attempts (which were somewhat successful) to organize ships of illegal immigrants without the knowledge of the authorities.