Israel Belkind ( Israel Belkind , Hebrew ישראל בלקינד ; April 11, 1861 , Logoisk , Minsk Province , Russian Empire - September 28, 1929 , Berlin , Germany ) - Jewish public figure - Palestinian philologist and enlightener, founder of the BILU movement.
| Israel Belkind | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Isroel Meerov Belkind |
| Date of Birth | April 11, 1861 |
| Place of Birth | |
| Date of death | September 28, 1929 (68 years old) |
| Place of death | Berlin , Germany |
| Occupation | |
| Religion | Judaism |
| Main ideas | paleophilism |
Content
Biography
Israel Belkind was born in 1861 in Logoisk to the family of Meer Belkind [1] and Shifra Belkind, nee Galstukh [2] (according to the revision tale of 1851, Meer Ellevich and Shifra Shimonova Belkind [3] ). His father was a maskil , a supporter of the Hovevei Zion movement and one of the first Hebrew teachers in the countries of the world [2] . Other family members (in particular, Israel’s brother-in-law Shimshon), like Israel, were inspired by the ideas of “Hovevei Zion” and subsequently actively participated in the Zionist movement. So, Samson’s son Naaman Belkind became a member of the underground organization NILI and was executed in 1917 by the Turkish authorities [4] . Sister - Olga Meerovna Belkind (married to Hankin, 1852-1943), one of the pioneers of the settlement of Eretz Yisrael [5] . In the 1870s, the family lived in the town of Pleshchenitsy, Borisov district [6] .
To provide children with a decent secular education, Meer Belkind moved with his family to Mogilev. There, Israel Belkind graduated from the state gymnasium in Russian, after which he entered Kharkov University . However, the Jewish pogroms of 1881 in southern Russia reassured him of the possibility of a normal future for Jews in this country [2] . At the beginning of 1882, Belkind gathered several Jewish youths and, with their participation, founded the BILU movement ( Hebrew ביל"ו , from the words “בית יעקב לכו ונל «ה” - “Oh, the house of Jacob! Come and let us go” [7] ) The original name of the organization was an abbreviation of another biblical verse “tell the sons of Israel that they should go” [8] , but later it was changed, which, according to Belkind, reflected a shift in the organization’s ideology from propaganda to personal actions in the form of moving to Palestine [ 9] .
In 1882, Belkind as part of the first group of “Biluyts” arrived in Palestine, at that time as part of the Ottoman Empire . Initially, along with his comrades, he worked as a farm hired worker in Mikve Israel . Belkind managed to convince the manager of Mikve Israel, Shmuel Hirsch, of the seriousness of the intentions of the Bilui people, who did not seek to become yet another recipients of financial assistance, but to engage in independent work. Subsequently, he was recommended to the Jewish philanthropist Edmond (Benjamin) Rothschild , and he ordered the Bilui people to be relocated to the newly founded Rishon Lezion settlement [10] .
However, in Rishon Lezion, the attitude of the Rothschild-appointed administrators toward Belkind and his organization comrades was exactly the one he opposed: the Biluys were seen as beneficiaries. Belkind, protesting against this status, was eventually expelled from Rishon Lezion, his brother and sister were forbidden to provide him with housing. He lived in Jaffa and Jerusalem, interrupted by casual earnings, before settling in Geder . Later, on the recommendation of Shmuel Hirsch, Belkind was appointed representative from Gedera on the Executive Committee of Hovevei Zion. As a member of the Hovevei Zion Executive Committee, he supported public protests in Rishon Lezion against the policies of the Rothschild administration, which ended in the defeat and expulsion of protest leaders - including Samson Belkind, who moved to his brother in Geder [10] .
After that, Israel Belkind focused his efforts on the development of Jewish national education. In 1889, he founded the first private school in Hebrew in Jaffa [9] , among the teachers of which were his father and sister Sonya. The maintenance of the school turned out to be unprofitable, and after two and a half years it closed; Belkind had to sell his farm in Geder in order to pay off his debts [10] . After the school in Jaffa was closed, he was hired as a teacher at the World Jewish Union School in Jerusalem and began compiling Hebrew textbooks [9] . Among the books prepared by Belkind were a book of arithmetic, textbooks of world history and the basics of Hebrew, published in 1896-1899. Later he also taught at the schools of the World Jewish Union in Jaffa and Rishon Lezion [10] .
In 1903, Belkind founded the Kiryat Sefer agricultural boarding school with Hebrew teaching at the Shfiya moshavim (near Zikhron Yaakov ). The first students of the school were Jewish children from Chisinau , orphaned as a result of the pogrom of 1903 and taken by Belkind to Palestine. The school lasted about three years, after which it was closed due to lack of funds [9] . After the school closed, Belkind worked at the bank, and later - the director of the school in Hadera . In 1911, he began publishing the monthly Ha-Meir magazine, but managed to publish only 11 issues. At the end of World War II, he returned to the idea of a boarding school and brought to Palestine a number of orphans from Ukraine, but financial difficulties again did not allow him to implement this project [11] .
In the late 1920s, Belkind founded the Ha-Meir publishing house in Palestine, where he published a number of his books written earlier [11] . Including in 1928 his book “Eretz Israel Today” [4] was published, written in the wake of his travels around the country. In 1917, in Yiddish, his book The First Steps of Settling Eretz Yisrael [12] on the history of the Jewish settlement movement in Palestine [11] was published in Yiddish , then another work in Yiddish “Plow-building school in Eretz Yisrael - Kiryat Sefer: her goals, history and current situation. ”
In 1929, Belkind became seriously ill. He went to Berlin for treatment, where he died in September of that year. Later, his ashes were brought to Palestine and buried in a family plot in a cemetery in Rishon Lezion [11] . Belkind streets exist in Tel Aviv and Rishon Lezion, although they may have been named after other members of the same family [13] .
Publications
- I. Belkind . Modern Palestine in the physical, ethnographic and political relations. Odessa: Edition of G.M. Levinson, 1903.- 275 p. [14]
Notes
- ↑ Belkind Israel Meirovich - article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia
- ↑ 1 2 3 Tidhar, 1949 , p. 1295.
- ↑ E. K. Anischenko "Belkind and Zwick in the Kagals of Borisov County"
- ↑ 1 2 Belkind, family - article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia
- ↑ The metric records available on the Jewish Genealogy website JewishGen.org indicate Olga Meerovna Belkind.
- ↑ A photocopy of the revision record, registration is required : In the revision tales for 1874, Meer Belkind is assigned to the Pleshchenitsy, as is Olga Meleerovna Belkind (his eldest daughter), who lives separately.
- ↑ Isaiah. 2: 5
- ↑ Ex. 14:15
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Israel Belkind (1861-1929), founder of BILU and teacher (Hebrew) . Jewish agency. Date of appeal September 23, 2018.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Tidhar, 1949 , p. 1296.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Tidhar, 1949 , p. 1297.
- ↑ די ערשטע שריט פֿון ייִשובֿ ארץ-ישראל
- ↑ Rina Neer. The streets keep a memory. Leon Pinsker . History of the Jewish people . Date of appeal September 24, 2018.
- ↑ I. Belkind. Modern Palestine in Physico-Ethnographic and Political Relations
Literature
- David Tidhar. Israel Belkind // Encyclopedia of pioneers and builders of Yishuv = אנציקלופדיה לחלוצי הישוב ובוניו. - 1949. - T. 3. - S. 1295-1297.
Links
- Belkind, family - article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia
- Belkind Israel Meirovich - article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia
- Israel Belkind (1861-1929), founder of BILU and teacher (Hebrew) . Jewish agency. Date of appeal September 23, 2018.