Menachem Ussishkin

Menachem Ussishkin ( ''Avraham Menachem Mendel Ussishkin'', ; August 14, 1863 – October 2, 1941) was a Russian-born Zionist leader and head of the Jewish National Fund.

Biography

Menachem Ussishkin was born in Dubrowna in the Belarusian part of the Russian Empire. He received a traditional Jewish education, but when his family moved to Moscow, he learned in secular school. In 1889, he graduated as a technical engineer from Moscow State Technical University, today known as Bauman Moscow State Technical University. Ussishkin was among the founders of the BILU movement and the Moscow branch of the Hovevei Zion. He also joined the Bnei Moshe society founded by Ahad HaAm. In 1891, he made his first trip to Palestine.

Ussishkin served as Secretary of the First Zionist Congress. In 1903, Ussishkin visited Palestine and was not present at the Sixth Zionist Congress where the Uganda plan was presented. Soon after, he became one of the main leaders who strongly opposed this plan, until it was abandoned in the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905.

He was one of the Jewish delegates to the Paris peace conference after World War I.

In 1919, Ussishkin immigrated to what was in the process of becoming Mandatory Palestine on board the ship Ruslan. In 1920, he was appointed head of the Zionist Commission in Palestine. In his pamphlet "Our Program", he advocated group settlement based on labour Zionism. Under his influence, the Zionist movement actively supported the establishment of agricultural settlements, educational and cultural institutions, and Jewish polytechnic - later the Technion.

In 1923, Ussishkin was elected President of the Jewish National Fund which he headed until his death. Ussishkin was behind major land acquisitions in the Hefer, Jezreel and Beit She'an valleys.

In 1941, Ussishkin said he opposed any attempt to establish a Jewish state without Jews having a majority. He said that a minority-Jewish state would inevitably end in what would later be called apartheid. His proposal was to focus on large-scale immigration rather than independence: "First, a Jewish state, and second, equal rights for the Arabs, and third, transfer of the Arabs only if they consent."

"In South Africa, the blacks are eighty percent and the rulers there are the twenty percent of whites; the eighty percent have no rights at all … do you want that the Jews who are twenty percent should rule in Palestine? If that's what you say, then the way you use the term 'Jewish state' is comprehensible. But you won't say that, because you can’t say that, since there is no hope that anyone in the non-Jewish world would accept that concept, and also a large part of the Zionist movement would oppose that concept, justly or not."

Family

Ussishkin had two children: His daughter, Rachel, married Friedrich Simon Bodenheimer, entomologist and son of Zionist Max Bodenheimer. His son, Samuel, a lawyer, married Elsa Schoenberg. Their son is archaeologist David Ussishkin.

Death and burial

Ussishkin died in 1941 in Jerusalem at the age of 78. He is buried in Nicanor's Cave at the botanical gardens of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Mount Scopus.

The "Ussishkin Fortresses"

:''This section may be expanded using the corresponding article in Hebrew (March 2024)''

A group of villages in northern Israel, including Dan, Dafna, She'ar Yashuv and Beit Hillel, were collectively named the " Ussishkin Fortresses".

Commemoration

Ussishkin's name is commemorated in many places in Israel. Kibbutz Kfar Menahem is named after him.

On his 70th birthday, the Rehavia neighborhood council decided to change the name of the street in which he lived, Rechov Keren Kayemet Le'Israel ( Jewish National Fund) to Rechov Ussishkin, and move Rechov Keren Kayamet Le'Israel to its present location.Dotan Goren, Et-Mol 247 (August 2016), pages 23-26 (in Hebrew). There is a different version, according to which the name was previously called Rechov Yehuda HaLevy, see Kurtz, Chani. "Road of Remembrance: Street names and their stories". '' Binah'' Pesach supplement, 2015, p. 54. However, the historical documents show this version is incorrect. In particular, Yehuda HaLevy is the former name of Gan HaKuzari in Rehavia.

Following Ussishkin's death, many streets and schools in Israel were named after him, as is the largest auditorium at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem.

Gallery

File:אוסישקין עם אדולף שטנד.-JNF043067 (cropped).jpeg, Menachem Ussishkin (seated) with Adolf Stand. pre 1919
File:Beit Usishkin P8020025.JPG, Home of Menachem Ussishkin in Rehavia, Jerusalem
File:ארזה - מוצא- מנחם אוסישקין נוטע עץ (ברוש אוסישקין)-JNF008311.jpeg, Menachem Ussishkin 1929
File:מנחם אוסישקין ופרופסור אלברט איינשטיין-JNF039281.jpeg, Menachem Ussishkin with Albert Einstein
File:דפנה - ביקורו של אוסישקין במצודה שהוקמה על שמו-JNF039274.jpeg, Menachem Ussishkin visiting Dafna 1 May 1939

References

External links

Menachem Ussishkin
Jewish Agency for Israel
*The personal papers of Menachem Ussishkin are kept at th
Central Zionist Archives
in Jerusalem. The notation of the record group is A24.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ussishkin, Menahem
1863 births
1941 deaths
Belarusian Jews
Belarusian Zionists
Hovevei Zion
Ashkenazi Jews in Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine people of Belarusian-Jewish descent
Mandatory Palestine people of Russian-Jewish descent
Jewish National Council members
Labor Zionists
Members of the Assembly of Representatives (Mandatory Palestine)
People from Dubrowna
People from Jerusalem
Soviet emigrants to Mandatory Palestine
Russian Zionists
Delegates to the First World Zionist Congress
Immigrants of the Third Aliyah