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Bilu (; also Palestine Pioneers) was a Jewish movement of the late 19th century, fueled predominantly by the immigration of
Russian Jews The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest po ...
, whose goal was the agricultural settlement of the
Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definition ...
. Its members were known as Bilu'im, and the movement sought to inspire Jews to migrate to
Ottoman Palestine The region of Palestine (region), Palestine is part of the wider region of the Levant, which represents the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia.Steiner & Killebrew, p9: "The general limits ..., as defined here, begin at the Plain of ' ...
. The Bilu'im rejected progressive notions such as
Emancipation Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure Economic, social and cultural rights, economic and social rights, civil and political rights, po ...
and assimilation as viable options for Jewish survival. The movement collapsed as a result of the challenging farming conditions in Palestine and a lack of funding to sustain the settlers.


Etymology

Originally the movement was called Davio, an
acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...
of the Hebrew words from the Book of Exodus: "Speak unto the children of Israel that they will go forward." The movement's name was later changed by its founder,
Israel Belkind Israel Belkind (, ; 1861–1929) was a Jewish educator, author, writer, historian and founder of the Bilu movement. A pioneer of the First Aliyah, Belkind founded the ''Biluim'', a group of Jewish idealists aspiring to settle in the Land of Isra ...
, to "Bilu", which is an acronym based on a verse from the
Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC prophet Isaiah ben Amo ...
( 2:5) "בית יעקב לכו ונלכה" Beit Ya'akov Lekhu Venelkha ("House of
Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...
, let us go p).


History


Formation

The wave of pogroms in 1881–1884, known as "Southern Storms", in conjunction with Tsar
Alexander III of Russia Alexander III (; 10 March 18451 November 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 1894. He was highly reactionary in domestic affairs and reversed some of the libera ...
's
antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
May Laws Temporary regulations regarding the Jews (also known as May Laws) were residency and business restrictions on Jews in the Russian Empire, proposed by minister Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev and enacted by Tsar Alexander III on . Originally, intende ...
of 1882 prompted mass emigration of Jews from the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
. The Jews in Russia had originally hoped to move out of the
Pale of Settlement The Pale of Settlement was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 1917 (''de facto'' until 1915) in which permanent settlement by Jews was allowed and beyond which the creation of new Jewish settlem ...
(the territory that they were confined to by the authorities), but their hopes were dashed by a proposition from the Russian government for the Jews to move out of Russia entirely. Thus many Jews left; many went to North America, and a smaller group went to Palestine.Kimmerling, Baruch. ''Clash of Identities: Explorations in Israeli and Palestinian Societies''. Columbia University Press, 2008, 277. On 6 July 1882, the first group of Bilu pioneers emigrated from Russia and arrived in Ottoman Palestine. The group consisted of fourteen university students from
Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.
led by
Israel Belkind Israel Belkind (, ; 1861–1929) was a Jewish educator, author, writer, historian and founder of the Bilu movement. A pioneer of the First Aliyah, Belkind founded the ''Biluim'', a group of Jewish idealists aspiring to settle in the Land of Isra ...
, who was later a prominent writer and historian.


Initial challenges

The arrival of Bilu pioneers marked the beginning of the
First Aliyah The First Aliyah (), also known as the agriculture Aliyah, was a major wave of Jewish immigration (''aliyah'') to History of Israel#Ottoman period , Ottoman Palestine (region) , Palestine between 1881 and 1903. Jews who migrated in this wave cam ...
. They attempted to use farming societies as a way to relieve Jewish economical and social tensions from the Pale of Settlement. Jews were not farmers in the Pale of Settlement, so they saw the "return" to Palestine as a return to their historical practice of farming. As of 1882, there were 525 members in the Bilu movement, all of whom were controlled by the Kharkiv group or "The Central Bureau," controlled the affairs of all Bilu pioneers until all members were brought to
Jaffa Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...
. The group aimed to set up a model settlement for all Jewry. The Kharkiv group attempted to buy enough land from Turkey so that the entirety of the membership might settle the prospective land, which would enable the Jews to own the land which they were hoping to farm. Responding to local pressures, the Ottoman authorities started restricting Jewish land purchase and immigration to the empire. Bilu pioneers sought approval from the Ottoman Empire to immigrate to Palestine on the grounds of seeking refuge from Russian oppression, but leadership in the Ottoman empire refused to take more refugees to avoid further political discourse. Most Bilu'im returned to Russia after receiving the news that they were not welcome in Palestine. However, fourteen members of the movement continued on to Palestine without the permission of the Ottoman Empire and arrived in July 1882. Some members of the Central Bureau went to Jaffa, but shortly after, arrival funds ran dry, and the group could not afford to send for the rest of the members waiting in Russia.


The situation in Palestine

Most of the Jewish population consisted of
Sephardim Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendan ...
. The
Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...
population was much smaller and much less well off. Some Jews took a short stay at the Jewish farming school in
Mikveh Israel Mikveh Israel () is a youth village and boarding school in the Tel Aviv District of central Israel, established in 1870. It was the first Jewish agricultural school in what is now Israel and indeed the first modern Jewish settlement in Palestine ...
with the hopes of furthering their agricultural abilities; Jews were not farmers in Russia. However, this stay was cut short due to hostile encounters with Orthodox
Old Yishuv The Old Yishuv (, ''haYishuv haYashan'') were the Jewish communities of the Land of Israel during the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah waves, and the consolidation of the new Yishuv by the end of World War I. Unlike the new Yis ...
with opposing world views. The continued hostility from the Orthodox Jewish population drove Russian immigrants out of Mikveh Israel. After leaving, the hopeful settlers joined
Hovevei Zion The Lovers of Zion, also ''Hovevei Zion'' () or ''Hibbat Zion'' (, ), were a variety of proto-Zionist organizations founded in 1881 in response to the anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire and were officially constituted as a group at a conf ...
("Lovers of Zion"), unofficially led by
Leon Pinsker Leon Pinsker or Judah Leib Pinsker (; ; – ) was a physician and Zionist activist. Earlier in life he had originally supported the cultural assimilation of Jews in the Russian Empire. He was born in the town of Tomaszów Lubelski in the south ...
. Members aided in establishing
Rishon LeZion Rishon LeZion ( , "First to Zion") is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area. Founded in 1882 by Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who were ...
("First to
Zion Zion (; ) is a placename in the Tanakh, often used as a synonym for Jerusalem as well as for the Land of Israel as a whole. The name is found in 2 Samuel (), one of the books of the Tanakh dated to approximately the mid-6th century BCE. It o ...
"), which was an agricultural
cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...
. However, Jewish aspiration for agricultural societies did not align with the skill sets many immigrants possessed, which caused them to reach out for help from Baron
Edmond James de Rothschild Baron Abraham Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (; 19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934) was a French member of the Rothschild banking family. A strong supporter of Jewish settlement in Palestine, his large donations lent significant support to ...
and
Baron Maurice de Hirsch Moritz Freiherr von Hirsch auf Gereuth (; ; 9 December 1831 – 21 April 1896), commonly known as Maurice de Hirsch, was a German Jewish financier and philanthropist who set up charitable foundations to promote Jewish education and improve the l ...
. The settlers had previously refused help because the Barons wanted some control over how the colonies they would be funding would operate. After the Bilu'im admitted to needing help, Hirsch and Rothschild provided funding that led to the establishment of the local wine industry as a result of more successful agricultural work. In 1886, construction began on a winery in Rishon LeZion that became a successful wine-exporting enterprise. In the winter of 1884, another group of Bilu pioneers founded
Gedera Gedera, or less commonly known as Gdera (), is a town in the southern part of the Shfela region in the Central District of Israel founded in 1884. It is south of Rehovot. In , it had a population of . History Gedera is in the Book of C ...
. Gedera was established on a tract of land purchased from the Arab village of
Qatra Qatra () was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict, located southwest of the city of Ramla and west of Jerusalem, some above sea level.Bromiley, 1994, pp. 5-6. It was depopulated in May 1948. History Qatra was a Canaanite cente ...
by Yehiel Michel Pines of the Hovevei Zion through the auspices of the French consul in Jaffa.


Goals for the movement

The Bilu movement's ideology consisted of six articles: # The return of the people Israel to their historic land # The rejection of any discussion of national spiritual revival in favor of Jewish settlements in Palestine as the beginning of national rebirth # The dismissal of European Jewish emancipation and other progressive ideas as guarantees of Jewish survival # Bringing Jewish people to Palestine to form both physical colonies and spiritual centers # The recognition that territory is an essential part of Jewish national survival # The assertion of the society as pioneering and avant-garde The movement was looking to educate Jewish youth based on the notion that the Jews would be outsiders in any land except for Palestine, where they should consider themselves native. Young people were the ideal audience because they were generally robust and likely capable of manual labor. The Bilu movement sought to spread the belief that even if Jewish people were to give up their Jewish identities to be accepted by their neighbors, they would never achieve true acceptance, and should therefore not relinquish their Jewish identities. One of the foundational beliefs of the Bilu movement was the belief that Jews should immigrate to Palestine. However, many Bilu'im were not financially prepared or emotionally equipped for emigration out of Europe. Leadership central to the movement, headquartered in Kharkiv (in modern day
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
), made it clear to many Bilu'im that the movement could not fund a mass emigration. Thus, should settlers struggle, they would have to turn to external sources for financial aid. The Bilu'im was one of the few Zionist movements that focused on both personal and national revival. Scholar Baruch Kimmerling argues that the group was more religiously- than politically-motivated and that "the newcomers lacked a coherent ideological vision of the
Jewish state In world politics, Jewish state is a characterization of Israel as the nation-state and sovereign homeland for the Jewish people. Overview Modern Israel came into existence on 14 May 1948 as a polity to serve as the homeland for the Jewi ...
and nation building." Yet "later Zionist historiography" claims the group retrospectively as progenitors of Jewish political society in Palestine. The movement sought to reinvigorate the Jew as a farmer in addition to its goal of ensuring Jewish survival through agricultural settlements.The movement was powered by a group ethos as opposed to the individual goals that motivated other pioneers to Ottoman Palestine.


Methods

The Bilu movement wanted young Jews to immigrate to Palestine to create farming communities. The Bilu idealists wished to create a new breed of Jewish farmer and reintroduced old colonist solutions to different established nations. The movement adopted almost the entire "maskilic" discourse, hoping for a cultural and spiritual renewal. Maskilim were people educated in Hebrew literature but from a more secular standpoint than the religious Hebrew teachings of the Talmud. These people were often a part of the
Haskalah The ''Haskalah'' (; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), often termed the Jewish Enlightenment, was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Wester ...
movement, also known as the Jewish Enlightenment. By engaging in maskilic discourse, the Bilu leaders appealed their ideals to more traditional and progressive thinkers alike. Some consider the Bilu movement as pioneers of
Labor Zionism Labor Zionism () or socialist Zionism () is the left-wing, socialist variant of Zionism. For many years, it was the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizations, and was seen as the Zionist faction of the historic Jewish ...
.


Collapse of the movement

As time went on, the number of Bilu immigrants in Palestine began to decline. It was not easy to live as an agriculturalist in Palestine. Though agriculture was a part of the society, farming settlements tend to be beholden to a scope of natural weather disasters and do require some sort of financial backing to succeed. As a result of challenging farming season, a lack of financial means, and the variability of wine fit for sale, the Russian Bilu'im ceased to exist. Similarly among other sects of Bilu'im, such as the activists in
Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
, fiscal stability proved to be a problem for advancing the movement, and many activists emigrated to Palestine. There, they worked in agriculture as best they could, but continued to struggle. Some emigrated to the United States, funded by the director of the Israeli Mikveh. The aforementioned Gederah became the primary Bilu settlement, and it is known as such today.


See also

*
Aliyah ''Aliyah'' (, ; ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine (region), Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the Israel ...
*
First Aliyah The First Aliyah (), also known as the agriculture Aliyah, was a major wave of Jewish immigration (''aliyah'') to History of Israel#Ottoman period , Ottoman Palestine (region) , Palestine between 1881 and 1903. Jews who migrated in this wave cam ...
*
Gar'in Gar'in (, ''lit.'' kernel) is a Hebrew term used for groups of people who moved together to Ottoman Palestine, British Palestine, and since 1948, Israel.Joel Beinin The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry- 2005 9774248902 "arrived in Israel while the m ...
*
Hechalutz HeHalutz or HeChalutz (, lit. "The Pioneer") was a Jewish youth movement that trained young people for agricultural settlement in the Land of Israel. It became an umbrella organization of the pioneering Zionist youth movements. History Before W ...
*
Isaiah 2 Isaiah 2 is the second chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. Text The origi ...
*
Yishuv The Yishuv (), HaYishuv Ha'ivri (), or HaYishuv HaYehudi Be'Eretz Yisra'el () was the community of Jews residing in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The term came into use in the 1880s, when there were about 2 ...
*
Youth village A youth village () is a boarding school model first developed in Mandatory Palestine in the 1930s to care for groups of children and teenagers fleeing the Nazis. Henrietta Szold and Recha Freier were the pioneers in this sphere, known as youth ...


References


External links


A history of Israel: Bilu
{{Authority control Forerunners of Zionism Jews and Judaism in Ottoman Palestine Words and phrases in Modern Hebrew