Detailed
Description |
|
Rare and unusual tri-lingual Hebrew-Yiddish-Cyrillic early Zionist document pertaining to the resettlement of the land of Israel. The cover (title page) in green, describes it as the organization to support Hebrew agricultural workers and craftsman in Syria and Palestine. The text begins with a statement of purpose, that the habura (organization, society) was founded solely for charitable purposes, to strengthen Jewish settlement through the work of their hands. The habura provides funds in support of this purpose. The takkanot address organizational issues, committees, the habura’s work in Palestine. There are twenty-nine paragraphs, some with several entries. The text reads from right to left in Hebrew followed by Yiddish, both in square letters. The text is repeated from left to right in Cyrillic.
Jewish resettlement in Erez Israel began in 1882 with the foundation of the first of the Russian-Jewish Agricultural Colonies in Palestine. This community, which was called Rishon le-Zion (Ajun-Kara), and consisted of only six Russian immigrants who established themselves on the road between Jaffa and Gaza. Soon after they had located themselves, Baron de Rothschild took them also in charge. The population of this colony numbered 266 in 1890. Five years later it had increased to 450, and in 1898 to 531, exclusive of the members of the administration and of the day-laborers. The number of dwellings increased from 44 in 1890 to 62 in 1898. A party of ninety Russian-Jewish students, members of the Society Bilu, migrated to Palestine in 1882, and set to work as common laborers, hoping to save enough money to found a separate agricultural colony. These young men, some of whom were graduates of Russian universities, at first suffered many privations; but in 1884, through the efforts of Jehiel Michael Pinnes, together with a number of immigrants from Kharkov who purchased one-fifth of the land, they joined the Ghederah colony, which was started by the Chovevei Zion Society of Paris. This colony was supported by the Russian Chovevei Zion Society; but was taken under the protection of the Jewish Colonization Association of London.
In 1898 there were in all the 25 colonies about 5,000 Jews. (According to the reports of L. Mozkin and others, there are in all Palestine about 4,500 Jewish colonists, occupying about 25,000 hectares - 62,500 acres - of land.) Besides 300 families of day-laborers, there were 660 families of actual colonists, numbering 2,838 persons. Of these, 390 families, or 1,000 persons, were under the management of the Rothschild administration. In addition to the aid received from this source, various bodies support the colonists, more especially two organizations, viz., the Odessa Aid Society for Jewish Agriculturists and Artisans, and, in much larger measure, the Jewish Colonization Association.
|
