Michael Halperin (form of birth name Michl Helpern [1] ; 1860 , Vilna - December 4, 1919 [2] , Safed ) - Jewish public figure, philanthropist , ideologist and practitioner of Palestinian art , delegate to the World Zionist Congresses . Halperin, who participated in the creation of the Jewish settlement of Yesud ha Maal in Palestine and the acquisition of the land on which Ness Ziona was founded, was also one of the organizers of Jewish self-defense units in Russia and Palestine and was one of the founders of the Poalei Zion movement.
| Michael Halperin | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Michl Helpern |
| Date of Birth | |
| Place of Birth | |
| Date of death | December 4, 1919 |
| Place of death | |
| Religion | Jew |
| The consignment | Poalei Zion |
| Main ideas | paleophilism |
| Occupation | |
Content
Biography
Michl Helpern was born in 1860 in Vilna in the family of a wealthy Jew who owned houses in different cities of Lithuania. On the maternal side, Michl was the grandson of Malbim , the famous interpreter of the Torah . In childhood, received a traditional Jewish education. Married to Sarah Kalmanovich [3] .
Already in his youth, Michael was imbued with both the ideas of social justice and national ideology. Using funds received as a legacy, he organized a campaign to ransom Jewish girls from brothels; after that he married them out. In Smolensk , also for the money received as an inheritance, Helpern founded a craft school, and in Vilna a cooperative factory for knitting socks; This factory employed women from the poorest sections of the Jewish population, who had previously worked for low wages in private enterprises [3] .
The Jewish pogroms of 1881 in the south of the Russian Empire pushed Helpern to Palestinian art. He joined the Hovevei Zion movement [1] . After the 1884 Hovevei Zion conference in Katowice, Halperin decided to move to the Land of Israel [3] . Upon arrival in Palestine in 1886 he settled in Rishon Lezion [1] . He continued to invest in charity projects, in particular by taking part in the development of the land of the Yesod ha Maala settlement and donating a significant amount of money to acquire land for another working settlement - in the future, Ness Ziona . These expenses, however, seriously undermined his well-being, so that in the future he had to mortgage the acquired land. At the same time, Halperin took part in the social movement. He founded the first labor union in Palestine and actively opposed the agricultural workers of Rishon Lezion and other Jewish settlements against the policies of representatives of the Baron Rothschild Foundation. This struggle subsequently escalated into a real uprising, and as a result Halperin was forced to temporarily leave Palestine [4] .
Living in Russia in the late 1890s, Halperin conducted in youth Jewish circles the propaganda of the ideas of workers' Zionism [1] . Returning to Palestine in 1898, he regularly traveled beyond its borders, including to take part in the World Zionist congresses . At the VI Zionist Congress, he was among the delegates who sharply opposed the Uganda program - a plan to create a Jewish colony in Africa [2] . After the Chisinau pogrom in 1903, Halperin set about creating Jewish self-defense units, collecting money for them and acquiring weapons; he even happened to lead several battle groups in Vilna and other cities [1] .
Returning to Palestine in 1906, Halperin also began organizing Jewish self-defense units known as the HaShomer . He also participated in the creation in Palestine of the workers' Zionist movement Poalei Zion . He actively promoted the creation of a full-fledged Jewish armed forces - the "People's Legion", which will serve to establish Jewish control over the Land of Israel on both sides of the Jordan . Having spent all the inheritance received by this time and left without a livelihood, Halperin worked as a night watchman - first in Jaffa , and then, after the founding of Tel Aviv , in the Herzliya Jewish gymnasium [2] .
When, in the light of the military successes of the British troops in the Middle East , in Palestine, the mobilization of volunteers in the Jewish Legion as part of the British army began, Halperin became one of those who appeared to join his ranks. However, given his age and poor health, he was denied this. Suffering from a lack of funds and worsening health, Halperin moved from Tel Aviv to Upper Galilee , where he died on December 4, 1919 ( Kislev’s 12 Jewish year 5680) in a hospital in Safed [2] .
Michael Halperin is buried near the settlement of Mahanaim in the Upper Galilee. Moshav Givat Michael was named in his honor near Ness Ziona; his name also bears a street in Tel Aviv [2] . His son Irmeyahu was one of the leaders of the Beitar movement, the founder of the Beitar maritime school in Italy in 1934 and the Maritime Museum in Eilat after the creation of the State of Israel [1] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 Halperin Michael - article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Tidhar, 1947 , p. 276.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Tidhar, 1947 , p. 275.
- ↑ Tidhar, 1947 , p. 275-276.
Literature
- David Tidhar. Michael Halperin // Encyclopedia of pioneers and builders of Yishuv = אנציקלופדיה לחלוצי הישוב ובוניו (Hebrew) . - 1947. - T. 1. - S. 275—276.
Links
- Halperin Michael - article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia