Trudy Gold
The Development of Zionism in the Russian Empire

Trudy Gold | The Development of Zionism in the Russian Empire | 07.05.22

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- Anyway, good evening, everyone, and going back, of course, to Russia. The main thrust of tonight is to look at the development of Zionism in the Russian Empire, but let me state very, very carefully, both the Zionists and the International Socialists were very much the minority of Russian Jews. When I say Russian Jews, please don’t forget I’m talking about your families, whether they came from Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, or the Baltic Sea, or the Baltic coast. We’re talking about the Jews who lived in Eastern Europe, and as we’ve already established many times, over 40% of them get out between 1881 and 1914. Now, that in itself is extraordinary because how bad do things have to be before you decide to become a refugee? Now, before I get onto Zionism, I thought I’d just talk a little more about that group so that you get a notion of what happens to them. And of course, these threads will be picked up later on. Now, we talked about the Southern Fury. That was the outbreak of pogroms 1881 to 1882. And many of them fled, where did they flee to? They fled into the Habsburg Empire, to the border town of Brody. By 1882, there were 20,000 Jews in No Man’s Land. They had absolutely no money, they were destitute. And this is where, this is where the whole notion of Jewish charity came in, which later on is going to be contested by the Zionists.

If the funds in the main at first were provided by the Alliance in Paris, also by Baron de Hirsch, and in Britain, I’ve already talked to you about the Mansion House Fund. This was invigorated in Britain. And what happened was that delegations were sent out. There was a conference of Jewish relief organisations and delegates were actually sent out. It’s interesting, because Wendy’s just been talking about Ukraine and Israel, and I know the kind of extraordinary efforts that are being made there. But they set up immigrant aid committees in centres across Europe. They stationed on the borderlands welfare representatives, interpreters at the crossings to give them food, to give them medical aid, and of course, kosher food, because at this stage, you’re dealing with a very traditional community. So the other thing that happens, though, that many of the existing Jewish communities in Germany, in France, and in Britain, were worried about the kind of immigration. So what they did is they began a press campaign. “Don’t come, there isn’t much work.” So the other, it didn’t deter, but I’m going to talk about what did in a minute. Now, what about the roots from the northern provinces? Those are those people who crossed over from East Prussia, and they of course make their way through Germany to Berlin and then to Bremen, Hamburg, and Rotterdam. And at this stage, there was tremendous competition between the various lines, the shipping lines, and it was actually cheaper to travel from Europe to Britain and then on to America than to go straight direct from Europe.

So of course, hundreds of thousands of Jews are actually going to land up in England, but the bulk of them are going on to go onto America. So you’ve got a very mixed picture. You’ve got help on one level, you have relief committees set up, but also there’s a wariness of the existing communities if we allow too many in. In fact, there were, if I’m going to take England as my example, there were only 65,000 Jews in England in 1881. In the end, 150,000 are going to settle. And by 1914, with population explosion, and of course, natural increase, the Jewish population hits 300,000. And it led to the, ironically, it leads the development of Jewish quarters, not ghettos, in the East End in particular, and in North Manchester, in areas of Liverpool, where in certain boroughs, the Jews make up the majority. And also, because I think you’re going to find echoes of what happened to your families, whether you went to America, Canada, South Africa, what were the main professions they brought with them? Well, they went into the clothing business, they went into the manufacturing, tailor of footwear, they went into the tailoring business, boot making, furniture making, very much also taking on the opportunities of the countries in which they lived. And also you see the development of native born Jews, more diversification of occupation. They go into become commercial travellers.

They go into the tobacco business. And also it’s going to lead to large scale, within two generations, this is, you have the development of large scale retailing, especially food, clothing, and furniture. And I’m sure that gives you huge echoes, whether you’re living in America, in Chicago, New York, Montreal, Toronto, London, it doesn’t matter. These were the Jewish professions. Of course, some of them went into large industrial businesses as well. And basically, you begin to see the stratification of the Jewish community. And if I’m going to take London as an example, between 1881 and 1919, of 50 Jews who died leaving over half a million pounds, 31 of them were bankers, 6 were stockbrokers, six were merchants, two were diamond dealers. So you still have the whole, the usual industries, but the point is, even though the existing community is putting pressure on, nevertheless, they’re still going for the promised land. And the promised land, be it London, be it New York, and eventually they’re going to settle and they’re going to enrich the countries. But it’s important to say these are not political developments. These are people doing what most of us want, to try and create a decent life for their families.

Now I’m going to turn to a far more political development. And please remember, it’s only a small minority, but these are the developments that are going to change the world, the Jewish world, and when I look at International Socialism, the world itself. And I want to say very, very carefully that please don’t use the hindsight of history when we look at the development of Zionism, because in the end, I’m sure many of you will say, well, they were the ones who got it right. We shouldn’t use that as our yardstick. Terrible things are happening in the empire. There’s terrible poverty. The Tsar Nicholas II, it was interesting hearing William’s description of Nicholas II and then me having to slot Jewish history into it, because from a Jewish point of view, he was actually the worst of all the Tsars. He was chairman of the Black Hundreds, the pogromists. It was a terrible, terrible time, so bad. Internal migration, external migration, and destitution and poverty. And for those who did make it to the New World or to the old world of Europe, there was crime, there was prostitution. It wasn’t the rosy picture. But nevertheless, they’re going to come through. And certainly, in the countries of the west, become a very prosperous community. How well integrated is a subject that I think Lockdown University has approached, and I know we’re going to approach it further, but now I want to look at that small group of people who changed the Jewish world. And I’m going to start with Leon Pinsker.

So if we could see, yeah. Now, I’ve already mentioned him to you because the point about these characters is they are, of course, products of the Haskalah. As products of the Haskalah, they have believed so much in Russia changing. When Russia doesn’t change, these individuals look for new, they look for a new destiny. And of course, Pinsker, who had become a doctor, he lived in Odessa, one of the important centres of enlightenment. Remember St. Petersburg, Vilna, Odessa, they are the centres of Jewish Enlightenment. Pinsker becomes very disillusioned, and of course, he writes his important pamphlet, “Auto-Emancipation,” and he writes it in German as a Mahnruf to the Jews of the West. So can we see the extract, please, Judy? This is an extract from “Auto-Emancipation.” “The Jews are not a living nation. They are everywhere aliens, therefore they are despised. The civil and political emancipation of the Jews is not sufficient to raise them in the estimation of the peoples. The proper and the only remedy would be the creation of a Jewish nationality of people living upon its own soil. Their emancipation as a nation amongst nations by the acquisition of a home of their own. We should not persuade ourselves that humanity and enlightenment will ever be radical remedies for the malady of our people.”

Now, this is important, because Pinsker had really believed, in the early years of the reign of Alexander II, you remember, he is the tsar who emancipates the serfs. He is the tsar who unlocks many of the horrors that were facing all his nationalities. And there was a belief he needs to modernise Russia. And there was a belief that the Jews, along with other groups, could become useful subjects of the tsar, and eventually, perhaps, even move, that Russia will even move towards the kind of situation that you found in Britain with a parliament. There were many, many hopes. I should also mention at this time, there were people in the Haskalah who had become Russified, who even after 1881 didn’t give up. In the main, they were a wealthy group who used the Russian language. Again, a small group, but they did believe eventually Russia would change. But here you have with Pinsker completely rejecting the notion of the Enlightenment. He sees the pogroms. He’s already witnessed the 1871 pogrom in Odessa. And don’t forget that is where they created the centre for the spread of enlightenment amongst the Jews of Russia. There was a branch in St. Petersburg and a very important branch in Odessa. And he really believed, and now he’s shattered. So he’s looking for a new kind of solution to the problem of the Jew. He says to the Jews who are going west, “You are fooling yourselves, because one day, antisemitism will follow you there.” And remember that very famous quote of his that I often mention?

He said, remember, he’s a doctor. He said, “Judeophobia is a psychic aberration. It is a 2,000 year old disease. It is incurable.” So consequently, Pinsker is very much committed to a new kind of Jew, a Jew that will create their own nation. Now, of course, this brings up the real problem. What does it mean to be a Jew? And he, with a few other important figures who are going to change the course of Jewish history, they are going to create Hovevei Zion, Lovers of Zion. They’re going to have a conference in Kattowitz in 1884 in Prussia, outside the orbit of Tsarist Empire, where they are going to really begin to talk about what do we need to do to change the Jewish world? And you’ll also see from Russia and Romania, because Romania will also be experiencing horrific antisemitism, you’re beginning to see groups of Jews actually go to Palestine. Now, can we turn to the next individual, please, who you’ve also met before when I looked at the Haskalah. Of course, this is Peretz Smolenskin. He’s a fascinating character. And I always think when I look at him, doesn’t he look like Edgar Allen Poe? I mean, he was very much a romantic character. And Smolenskin, of course, he was living in Vienna. He also had come from a very religious background. He had believed that Russia would change. And he also writes a very, he now, he becomes involved very much with Pinsker, with other characters.

In fact, in Vienna, he had met up with Laurence Oliphant. You’ll remember that Laurence Oliphant was that Christian Zionist, the important Englishman who was already living in Palestine, who was very much trying to sort out Jewish settlement there. So it’s coming from different directions. I don’t want you to see it yet as a codified movement. It’s going to take the genius of the Western journalist, Theodor Herzl, to create a movement. But the point is, it’s the ideas in Russia that were very, very important. And I should also mention there were others before Pinsker, before Smolenskin. And of course, Moses Hess, back in Germany, who was a forerunner of communism. He saw that the Germans would never really integrate the Jews. He said the Germans hate the Jews not because of their peculiar religion, because of their peculiar noses. He said it’s racial. And also from the rabbinic community, two rabbis, Alkalai and Kalischer, both living in border communities who were aware of all the nationalisms of the modern world, and they saw that the Jews were not going to be part of it. And they came up with a scheme within Judaism. They said, just as there will be a forerunner of the Messiah, what is wrong with us going to the land and beginning to prepare for his coming?

So it’s a gradual movement, and also Christian Zionism is spreading as well. If you think of writers like George Eliot with Daniel Deronda, also evangelicals in America that I’ve already referred you to. So basically there’s something in the air, but I must stress, it’s only a tiny number of people. Can we come to the next, yes. What I’ve done is I’ve taken some of their writings, and I’ve kind of condensed it so you get a feel of the most important things they wrote. Now, a very, very good book is “The Zionist Idea” by Arthur Hertzberg. It was later updated by Troy. Use either of them. What they are, they give you the major ideas of the most prominent of the Zionist thinkers. Now, he addresses the Jews of Berlin, and it’s heartbreaking. “The problem of the Haskalah was not simply to awaken a desire for learning and knowledge amongst our people. Its basic intention was to imitate the Gentiles. The Haskalah of Berlin rested on this. We should abandon our own traditions, to disdain our own manners and ideas, and to conduct ourselves both at home and in the synagogue, in imitation of others. As the reward for such achievement, so these wise teachers assured us, our children, or our children’s children, or their children, will be accepted as equals. Our nationhood was a serious stumbling block, an existing Jewish national patriotism would be a bar to assimilation.

They succeeded in de-nationalizing Jewry and teaching it to mimic apelike the life around it, but their dream did not materialise.” So here you have Smolenskin. These characters are all outsiders, you know. They’ve come from traditional backgrounds. They’ve broken away, they flirted with Enlightenment. And remember, Smolenskin spent much of his time in Vienna. And of course, Vienna was such a hotbed of, oh, so many different movements. What was it Karl Kraus called it? An experimental station on the way to the end of the world where you had so many different nationalities. And Smolenskin begins to realise, it’s just not going to work for the Jews. We cannot ever really be absorbed into the nations. This goes to the root, really, of what I think is the real issue of being a Jew today. It hasn’t changed since Napoleon’s Sanhedrin, you know. What are we, are we a religious group? Are we a nationality or are we a people? And of course, Smolenskin and Pinsker, when Pinsker sent “Auto-Emancipation” to a relative of his, who was a rabbi in Vienna, the rabbi actually said he needed to consult a doctor. He’s ill. Now I want to turn to another important character, Moshe Leib Lilienblum.

Now, he comes again from a poor background. He was born in Keidany in Lithuania, Kovno, in the Kovno region. I’m giving you a little background on him because I’ve already given you backgrounds on the others. His maternal grandfather was his teacher. And also to give you a notion of, all of these characters were incredibly smart. By the time he’s 13 years old, he’s already organised a study centre with other boys in the town. From a very traditional background. He’s married off at 15, and he settles near Vilnius. His father, what happens is, he is a scholar. His father-in-law is paying him, paying him and his daughter. So consequently, the couple can live and he can study. But then his father-in-law lost his money. So he now realises he’s got to create a new destiny. He’s already began to read the writings of the Maskilim, the enlightened ones, and he becomes very dissatisfied with traditional Talmudic study. And also, like many of the figures of the Haskalah, they saw the superstition and the folk ways of the Jews of Eastern Europe, the Jews of the Pale, they found them, if you like, primitive. It’s fascinating, you know. I think, I’m speaking personally now, I think one of the problems of the Haskalah, the same thing happened in Berlin, and in Vienna, and in Paris, and in London, they saw the pinnacle of German society, French society, British society.

They didn’t see the whole of Britain. And they compared the whole of Israel to high society from country to country, intellectual high society. And I think that was the mistake, because I think that’s what led to a real downgrading of the Jewish experience. What I will say is that a Talmudic education, whether you agree with the content or not, and we already know that there are many reformers within the Jewish tradition, traditional Orthodox as well, who are trying to reform the actual content, what may a Jew study. But you have to say that Talmudic education at its best is, I think, absolutely extraordinary. Some of the greatest minds I’ve ever known have had a Talmudic education. It’s fascinating. I suppose in the Christian world, the rival organisation is the Jesuits. And then another interesting aspect for you to think about, except Jesuits are celibate. You know, this is, if you want to know, in my view, one of the secrets of the Jewish story, it’s the rich man in the village always wanting the rabbi’s son for his daughter. If you believe in this transmitted, I don’t know, is it genetic or is it just a transmitted gene of learning? I don’t know. But I wanted to bring it up because I think there’s a big debate in it. Anyway, he begins to break away. He starts writing, and in the end, he goes where?

He goes to Odessa. He wanted to enter the university. He wanted a western education. He realised though, but he’s there for the pogrom of 1871. He realises that it’s not going to work. And he becomes more and more involved with Smolenskin’s ideas, with Pinsker’s ideas. And he understands that the Jews in the diaspora, they will always be unsafe. And when the committee is established in Kattowitz that I’ve already mentioned, he becomes the, he becomes the secretary. Pinsker is the president. And can I just show you an extract from one of his important, one of his important works, “The Way of Return.” “In 1877 I thought I cannot live as a human being if I lack high culture and formal education. At the end of 1881, I was inspired by a different ideal, and I became a different man. I became convinced that it was not a lack of high culture that was the cause of our tragedy, for aliens we are and aliens we shall remain. Now there lies before me a sure path to the salvation of our people and its nationhood.” Okay. So you’re beginning to work, it’s so obvious what they’re going towards. The only answer, you cannot be ghosts on the face of the world. Stop aping the Gentiles.

Remember that you once were a proud people and go back to it. Now, can we come to the next important figure? Now I’m going to be referring to him again because he’s seriously important. Ahad Ha'am, better known as, oh, that was the name he was better known as. Asher Zvi Ginsberg, 1856 to 1927. And of course, he is going to be on the board of the Hebrew University. I’ve been talking to Wendy about this. The Hebrew University must have had the most exciting board in the history of any university when it was first developed. It had Freud on it, it had Einstein on it, it had Ahad Ha'am, it had Weizmann, it had Bialik. What an extraordinary story. But anyway, Asher Ginsberg, he comes from a very pious Hasidic family. His family were very close to the rebbe of Sadagura. Again, a pious education. He wasn’t allowed to have any non-Jewish content, so he taught himself how to read Russian from the signs above shops in his area. By the time he’s an adolescent, he is regarded as a, he’s a scholar of the Talmud. He goes to cheder till he’s eight years old, then his father, who leased a huge estate, he was wealthy, he took private tutors for him. So he really, really becomes more and more involved in study. On this beautiful estate where his father was a tax farmer, he no longer, he doesn’t love nature. He says this, “I don’t love nature, I’m only interested in my books.”

But he begins to study mediaeval philosophy, at first through Maimonides, but gradually he goes onto the hidden books, the secret books, the forbidden books of the Haskalah. He’s got a brilliant mind. He understands languages. He teaches in languages. And gradually, by the age of 20, he’s reading Russian literature, he’s reading German literature. And gradually he begins to lose his faith. He has a very, he’s quite a fragile character. He doesn’t have a very, very easy time. He marries. Of course, an arranged marriage. Many of these marriages were not happy, particularly with people like this who didn’t want the conventional life. And in the end, he makes many decisions to travel. He wants to go to Vienna, to Berlin, to Breslau, to study. But his wife is ill, personal troubles, and he always goes back. But finally, finally, what happens is the Tsarist authorities forbid Jews to tax farm, in that they’re not allowed to lease land. So consequently, he finishes up in Odessa where he becomes part of the circle under the influence of Pinsker, a leader in Lovers of Zion. And he very much puts forward a fascinating idea. He goes off to Palestine. He doesn’t like the way the settlers are treating the Arab population. I’m going to spend more time on him because I want to, one of the things I want to do is I want to look at comparisons. I want to compare him with Herzl, because he was terrified of the First Zionist Congress, and he was very much against Herzl’s ideas. In 1891, he creates something called B'nei Moshe. It’s founded on the Seventh of Adar, the traditional birthday of Moses. And he becomes the leader.

This is a group of young intellectuals, and what they demand is moral, spiritual, and intellectual leadership. They want total morality. And his aim, their aim is to return the Jews to their traditional homeland. But not just that, he wants to broaden the scope of nationalism, particularly after Herzl erupts onto the scene. He wrote, after the Second Zionist Conference, “This is not the way.” He said that he felt like a mourner at a wedding feast. He didn’t believe that you could automatically transport the whole of the Jewish community to Palestine. He said it has to be gradual, and more important, you have to revive Jewish life in the diaspora. You need to create a spiritually, intellectually strong Jewry. And to do that, then they can assume the mantle of actually building up a state. He said the settlements, which I’m going to talk about in a minute, are a total failure because they are dependent on the charity of rich Jews. He had a dream. His dream was, and remember all these characters, and when I talk about the International Socialists, there’s a huge difference to the dream and the reality. He had a huge influence. He’s going to have a huge influence on Chaim Weizmann, because later on he’s going to have to accept a job as the manager of the Wissotzky Tea Company, and he’s going to come to London. He was troubled by Herzl’s lack of Jewish content.

If you think about it, the two stars of the Zionist Congress were Herzl and Max Nordau. How Jewish were Herz and Max Nordau, according to people like Ahad Ha'am, they were not of the Eastern European soil. They were not rooted in the Jewish tradition. If you think about it, Herzl had most of his good ideas when he was listening to Wagner’s operas. And Max Nordau, I mean, he was really immersed in European culture, and neither of them had religious lives. Ahad Ha'am, they called him the agnostic rabbi. He was troubled about religion, but he did believe in the spiritual content. He knew his Judaism. He believed in the justice of the prophets. And of course he was aware of the horror of Russia. And what he wanted was to create the kind of Jewish community in the diaspora that could spread light. He believed in the settlement in Palestine, but he saw it as a long, slow process. And he believed it should radiate light, that in Palestine it should become, if you like, the nub of the Jewish world, that it would regenerate the Jewish world. But it had to be morally, culturally, and spiritually strong. That was his ideal. He didn’t want to be “like the other nations,” quote, unquote. What he wanted was to create something very, very special. And the dream would then be that light would radiate from the land of Israel to the diaspora and to light up the whole world, fulfilling the promises of the prophets.

That was his dream. He was also, he’s also going to be involved in lots of controversies. Believe it or not, there was a controversy in Palestine over what language should be used, particularly with the creation of the Technion. German Jews believed that Germany was the land of science, and they wanted the instruction at the Technion to be in German. And he, working with a man I’m going to talk about in a minute, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, very much wanted Hebrew. And when he goes to Palestine after, he was also instrumental in helping Weizmann on the Balfour Declaration. He finally settles in Palestine. He fulfils his dream. He moves, in 1922, to Tel Aviv, which of course had been founded back in 1908. He becomes a member of the executive city council until 1926. He was a great inspiration. In fact, when he had his rest, no traffic was allowed along his street. And when he died on January 2, 1927, the whole of Tel Aviv came to his funeral. So he was an extraordinary man with an extraordinary dream. And his dream, of course, which I think many Jews still hanker for, that Israel does become, is the light unto the nations.

So it’s fascinating. Or is it Ben-Gurion’s dream? Ben-Gurion had a completely different dream. He wanted the Jewish people to become normal. He wanted the normalisation of the Jewish people. So there’s so many things to debate. And now I’m going to come on to the next important figure. And of course that is Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, born Eliezer Yitzhak Perlman in Lithuania. His father was a Chabad hasid, dies when he was five years old. He’s sent by his uncle to a yeshiva because again, there’s a brilliant young man on his hands, what’s he going to do with him? He’s going to become a rabbi. But the head of the yeshiva turned out to be a secret maskil and introduced this brilliant young man to secular literature. It’s realised what’s happening, so his uncle has to save him from heresy, because many of the religious Jews of Eastern Europe regarded the Haskalah as a complete heresy. So he goes to a yeshiva in the Vilna district, and he meets another Chabad Hasid, a man called Samuel Naphtali Herz, who was writing, he was writing for Hebrew periodicals. And he persuaded Ben-Yehuda, no, sorry, I should call him Perlman at this time, to prepare for secondary school matriculation. So he studies Russian, after a year of preparation, he breaks away and he goes to a gymnasium. And remember, this is when, this is before 1881, this is before the main laws, and he studies and he graduates. And in… And then, of course, you have the, what happens is the Russo-Turkish war and the struggle for the Balkans. And that revives nationalism in the Russian Empire. And it made him begin to think, what is the role of the Jew?

He’s flirting with the Haskalah. He’s now going to teach at a Russian crown school. But what is the purpose of it all? Will we ever really become proper subjects of Russia? This is before the big wave of pogroms, but there’s already been one in Odessa. And this is what he wrote later on in his preface to his dictionary. “In those days, it was as the heavens had suddenly opened, and a clear, incandescent light flashed before my eyes, and a mighty inner voice surrounded in my ears. The renascence of Israel on its ancestral soil.” He has a revelation. He’s determined to go to Palestine, but he needs a profession. So he’s got no money, so what’s he going to do? He manages to raise enough through a bit of teaching to go to Paris. He’s going to study medicine. He begins to write articles in “Ha-Shahar,” one of the Hebrew periodicals. And he writes under the name “Ben-Yehuda.” And he writes the, he writes an article called “The Burning Question.” He proclaims a national spiritual centre for the Jewish people. And this is what he wrote. “The Jewish people must establish in Palestine a community in land of Israel that would serve as a focal point for the entire people so that every Jew, even those who dwell in the diaspora, would know that they belong to a people that dwell in its own land and has its own language and culture.”

So again, very much on the same lines. And whilst he’s in Paris, he meets a Jewish journalist who told him of his travels in Africa and Asia. He told him about the Jewish communities there who spoke Hebrew, and he’d spoken Hebrew with them. Because how can you, how can you recreate a national sense of identity, Ben-Yehuda is thinking, without the language? Unfortunately, he contracted TB, and he realises this is the time for him to go to the land of Israel. But what’s he going to do there? So he enrols in an Alliance school because the Alliance, of course, funded by the Rothschilds under the auspices of Cremieux, had already set up a school in Mikveh Israel, the first Jewish agricultural school in Palestine. It had been founded back in 1870 to train young Jews in agriculture. So he decides he’s going to train to go to the school, and he was, he began to see that the real bar to Jews becoming a people, one of the real bars, they have to revive their ancient language, because Yiddish is the jargon of the diaspora, He believed.

Don’t forget the Bund is using Yiddish. What is the language of the Jews? I’ve mentioned this to you many times. Do we speak the languages of the countries in which we live? Do we speak Hebrew? What do we speak? What is the language of the Jews? Anyway, by 1880, he’s publishing articles advocating that Hebrew become the language. Finally, in 1881, he left for Palestine via Vienna, where he was joined by a childhood friend, Deborah Jonas, who he married in Cairo. So he and his wife, they settle in Jaffa, and they decide they’re going to converse only in Hebrew. He was a real zealot, Ben-Yehuda, a very, you can look at that sort of aesthetic face. He was a tough guy, and maybe you need a tough kind of character to do what he tried to do. He decides he needs more spoken Hebrew, so he’s going to integrate himself with the Orthodox community because they can use the language. So what he did was he grew a beard, he made his wife wear a sheitel, he adopted their customs, he grew the sidelocks, but they were suspicious of him and they sense that his Hebrew was not Lason Hakodesh, so there’s a problem. But he believed, they understood that he wanted it as a national secular language, so it caused real problems and led to him finally abandoning Judaism. So what happens is he, what happens is they, the religious, tell on the Turkish authorities, because he’s already, he said that basically they are, he’s causing trouble. He wants a national revival. And of course, for the Turkish authorities, that spelled trouble.

However, whilst he’s in Palestine, he founds with four colleagues something called Tehiyyat Israel. Now, this is what he demands. The creation of a modern Hebrew literature and science in the national spirit, the revival of spoken Hebrew, education of the youth in a national and at the same time, Universalist spirit, and to have total opposition to the charity system in the diaspora. He totally rejects the diaspora lifestyle, and he said, “The Hebrew language can only live if we revive the nation and return it to the Fatherland.” And also he began the coinage of new words according to the rules of grammar from other Semitic languages. Think about it. He’s reviving biblical Hebrew. He’s trying to make it up to date. Think of all the language you need of modern invention. It’s an extraordinary, it’s an extraordinary endeavour that he began. He worked on Hebrew articles, he taught at the Alliance school, and he, as I said, he was a real tough cookie. He only occupied the post after they said he could teach, he could use Hebrew as the language of instruction in all Jewish subjects. But over the next, and gradually he’s going to use it in all subjects. He’s a brilliant teacher. And over the next few years, he founded a weekly and then a daily paper. He works himself into the ground with his committee finding new words, et cetera. And what he’s doing, he’s removing the barrier between the holy and the profane tongue. And he has to be very careful because of Turkish censorship.

They’re already watching him, and he’s fallen out with the religious, as I’ve already said. In 1891, his wife died, and according to her wishes, he married her younger sister who adopted the Hebrew name of Hemdah. Now, she was as much of a zealot as him, and she works with him. She’s a very good publisher, she’s a journalist, and they worked together many, many articles. And the Orthodox community retaliate on him. And again, he’s in trouble with the Turkish authorities. He is actually sentenced this time to a year in prison. But there was such a storm. He’s becoming a very famous individual. There’s such a storm that he is allowed out. And he decides because, though the censorship is becoming harder and harder, he decides to concentrate on his dictionary, for which he collected materials since he arrived in Palestine. So what he does is he goes to Europe, he goes to America, he goes to all the great Jewish libraries. He wants to read, he wants to study. And in 1910, he has enough money from various sponsors to publish, quote unquote, “The Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew.” And it’s going to take way after his lifetime for it to be completed.

He dies in 1922. It’s completed. His wife takes up the mantle, as does his son. And he, basically, this is the forerunner of the Academy of the Hebrew language, which he’d suggested back in 1920. So he’s an extraordinary man. He fell foul of many of the Russian Zionists back in 1903 when he supported the Uganda offer. Made him many enemies, because of course Herzl and Nordau and Zangwill had supported the Uganda offer because there’d been this terrible pogrom in Kishinev, at least let’s get them somewhere. However, he decides on the pragmatic approach. Eventually it’s got to be in Palestine, but let’s get Jews out of Russia. During World War I, when Zionism, it becomes a problem to be a Russian Jew in the Turkish empire, ‘cause it was the enemy, he went to America. And as I said, he returns in 1919. And I suppose his other most important work was after the creation of the British Mandate, along with Menachem Ussishkin, he persuades Herbert Samuel that Hebrew should be one of the three languages of the mandate. And I think it was Ben-Yehuda more than anyone else that made Hebrew part of the national government, and eventually it becomes the language of the State of Israel. Yes, he was a hard man. He was a tough man. He made his children speak Hebrew.

Can you imagine what it was like for them when they went to school? But it’s, this is one of the issues of the greats in history who change history. What are their private lives like? He finally died of TB. He was buried on Mount Scopus 30,000 people went to his funeral. So, an incredible character. What was the land like when they actually went there? Now the, can we have a look at the population figures please? Yeah. In 1939, 1839, there were 6,000 Jews. There’s only a small Jewish population in 1880 when it begins from Russia. By 1900, there’s 45,000. So important to remember Europe is a very small population. I’m just going to read you a quote from the extraordinary Mark Twain when he visited Palestine, he wrote, “A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but it’s given over entirely to weeds. A silent mournful expanse. Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery, I think Palestine must be the prince. The hills are barren, the valleys are unsightly deserts. It is hopeless, dreary, a heartbroken land. Palestine is desolate and unlovely. It is sacred to poetry and tradition. It is dreamland.”

This is also a description by the English historian, Christian historian, James Parkes. “Peasant and Bedouin alike have contributed to the ruin of the countryside on which both depend for a livelihood. In the wars between villages, it was far too common a practise to cut down fruit trees and olives and to destroy crops. Bedouins freely destroyed the crops of villages, which they raided and killed or carried off their livestock. They filled wells with stones and broke down reservoirs and systems. They often caused such insecurity in whole districts that wide fertile areas were for years left completely uncultivated while streams and rivers became dammed. Malaria became endemic and the unlucky peasants fled elsewhere and starved in the towns. Some villages in the 19th century themselves took to Bedouin life because of the ruin of their agriculture. In spite of the immense fertility of the soil, it is probable that in the first half of the 19th century, the population sank to the lowest level it has known in historic times.” So the place they dream of coming to is very much a desert, very much a place of ancient dreams, but the reality is very, very different.

But you do have the beginnings of settlement in the land and that, of course, is the Hibbat Zion. Now, Hibbat Zion, can we move on, please? This is the beginning of the First Aliyah, Bilu. It comes from Isaiah, “House of Jacob, let us go out.” So it’s not just a question of individuals, but it’s a question of young individuals going out to the land of Israel and beginning to settle it. And it’s the first Aliyah. It’s important to know that there’s already a few agricultural schools set up for the existing population, mainly by the French Rothschild, but it’s the work of Israel Belkind that is very interesting. Again, a Haskalah background. He was born near Minsk and he hoped to go to university, but then, of course, the Southern Tempests, as they were called, the 1881-82 pogrom. And he realises it’s never going to work. So he organises a group. He was a very charismatic character. You can imagine what is happening to these disillusioned students. There was a group of students, Jewish students at the University of Kharkov, his family have a Haskalah home. He calls them all together and they decide what they’re going to do is they’re going to go out to the land and create a settlement. So they go out there. Unfortunately, he himself was unable to adjust to agricultural labour, so he devotes himself to agriculture. Now what were the settlements already there?

Well, one of them was Rishon LeTzion. I’m looking at the time and I’m looking at the fact that I have completely missed times today. So what I propose to do, because I’m teaching the protocols on Thursday, I don’t want to break into that, but I will continue this in the next couple of weeks. So, because I want to, I’m sure there’ll be questions on this, and I apologise for mistiming, but we will go back to the first Aliyah. But it’s important to remember these are young Russians who, young Russian Jews who realise that the diaspora will never work for them. So it’s not just the idealists, now, it’s a group. But please don’t forget, it took the genius of the European journalist, Herzl, to actually create the living movement. But the strands are all coming together now. So let’s have a look at the questions, please.

Q&A and Comments

Oh, thank you, Betty. This is for you, Wendy. We’re all family now. Oh, this is from Susan. “The Russian government ordered the Jewish agency to date to seize all operation inside the country. This is going to make it even more difficult to facilitate Aliyah.” Ayiyi. Yes, Frida. Oh, hi Frida. “I would like to underline that Tsar Nicholas II was horrible to all ethnic minorities. His policies towards the Poles were inhuman, and the same to all countries that were unwillingly part of the Russian empire.” Frida, so, totally, in fact, William looked at that. Yes, I am being very, I’m being very Jewish centred on this. Yes, of course, yes. And that’s the problem with Russia. How do you control Russia? There are so many parallels, are there not, to what’s going on today? And isn’t it fascinating to think that we are looking at the Bloodlands. Oh, thank you Frida.

Q: Carol, “Do I think what Smolenski wrote today is still very applicable?” A: Well, insofar as I don’t think the, I don’t think the answer to Jewish destiny has been sold. I think we all have to make our own answers, don’t we? It’s a very, very complicated issue, being a Jew. I often have this debate with non-Jewish friends, because, you know, if somebody asks you what it means to be a Christian, it’s a religious definition. As we’ve said many times, being a Jew is complicated.

Tim, “In relation to what we Jews are, my own personal view is it’s religion and a culture. Not sure if it’s a nationality. My nationality is Irish, but religiously and culturally I’m Jewish.” You see, that’s your decision, Tim, and that’s the joy of it. We make our own decisions. It’s certainly cultural. I have many friends who are completely atheistic, but mind you, they do like to come to a Seder service. But don’t forget that when Israel was created, the founding fathers, Israel was a nation and Israel gave the right of return to any Jew in the diaspora who wanted to come home. And in fact, when Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel, he actually said that the ingathering of exiles was the basis of the State of Israel.

Michael, “Smolenskin’s address to the Jews of Berlin reads like the prophets warning the Israelites against worshipping the idols, adopting the culture of the people living amongst them in the promised land.” Yeah, because they were so Jewish. That’s the point. These characters, whereas Herzl and Nordau didn’t know much about being Jewish, these characters come from the Jewish world. They’re the ones, apart from Ben-Yehuda, who thought that the notion of trying to create a homeland in Uganda was ludicrous. It’s only in your ancient homeland where you were once proud people, also people who spoke Hebrew. The fact that at the time of the destruction they were say speaking Aramaic is irrelevant.

Q: “Is the time we’re talking about around the time of the Refuseniks?” A: No, I don’t think so. I think we better check what happened.

“One example of a Torah educated man is Moshe Reichmann, better known as Paul Reichmann, founder of Olympian & York, who built Canary Wharf plus many others.” Yes, you see, this is another story which I haven’t brought into it, Jeremy. Yes, of course you can be a religious Jew in the diaspora. Yes, of course you can. You can walk the tightrope. I think the problem is that many Jews fall off. What we’re seeing happening now, though, certainly in England, I was told the other day that 24% of the Anglo community is now Haredi. That’s an interesting one. What’s that going to do to the demography of Anglo Jewry? And this is Elliot.

Q: “Would you agree that the disinterest in Talmud studies stems from the lack of awareness of the relevance of its contents in today’s world and how it can be used as a tool to sharpen one’s thinking?” A: Yeah, Elliot, I’m, it’s very, very complicated, isn’t it? Because I think most Jews living in the diaspora, if you think about it, those of you who’ve got children and grandchildren, what do you want from them? Do you want them to get perfect GCSEs, A levels in England, go to the best universities? Is it possible to do that and walk the tightrope? Can you be both? Can you have a superb Jewish education and at the same time, a superb secular education? It takes a lot of work.

This is from Abigail. “Ahad Ha'am’s ideas are coming to fruition in Israel today. I’m thinking of Ruth Calderon, a Sephardi who became a scholar of Talmud and a member of the Knesset. Here is the introductory speech of Knesset.” Thank you very much for that, Abigail. Thank you. Yes, of course, that idealism. And don’t forget that Ahad Ha'am becomes quite a mentor of Chaim Weizmann. I mentioned to you that he was important in working on the Balfour Declaration.

Q: “What was meant by the normalisation of the Jewish people?” A: Very good question, Tim. I think it meant to them, them being like, look, just as the Germans live in Germany and the French live in France, the Jews should live in Israel, not thinking about all the different minority groups, of course. It’s fascinating. And of course, in the Russian Empire, when Stalin was commissar for nationalities, there were 113 different national groups. So what does that mean? That’s one of the issues that, of course, Putin, who sees himself as a new Tsar, has got to deal with.

A myth is going in Israel that he said, this is Ben-Gurion, “We’ll be a normal state when we have our own criminals and our own prostitutes.” Jackie says, “I think that was said by Ben-Gurion.” I’ve heard it, I’m not sure. I’ve never seen the reference, but I think you all know what I mean. Ben-Gurion, when we are a normal state, that’s an interesting one. I remember going to a brilliant lecture where the lecturer said, the problem with Israel is it’s abnormal. And then he went on to say that if you think, he was talking about the early years of Israel, when people came from all over the world with extraordinary qualifications, how on earth did you make them into, inverted commas, what does it mean to be a normal nation? I’d love to know. Does the word normal and the word Jew apply? Write me an essay.

And this is Jess, “I am a child of a mixed marriage. My mother, Fager Herschet, was a Bund activist of the, one was Bund and one was Poale Zion.” Oh, that’s lovely. You know, my great uncle, when he passed away, he was a Bundist. But the tombstone wasn’t in Yiddish, it was in Hebrew. And there was, and I’m talking about the 50s, They had a big fight in, they had a big fight at the graveyard. It was strange. But that’s, that’s Jewish families. You’re looking for answers.

“All these very erudite Jews of whom you’re telling us whatever they’re telling the diaspora is still very pertinent today. We will never be accepted as equal unless you completely abandon being Jews, unless you have your own country which is judged or was differently.” Carol, that’s a very interesting point. I don’t believe, I’ve got to be careful here on the subject of antisemitism. I do not believe every Gentile is antisemite. Be very, very, very careful. The problem is we have the Shoah in our memory now, and we know what is possible. Please don’t forget, the people I’m talking about, they were the minority. Of those who left, by far the biggest majority, they went to America. 40% get out. In the main, the Hasids don’t move. Those who get out, look, think how many went to America? 2 million. 25,000 to Palestine. It’s not huge numbers, you know, is it? And even in 1933, there were only 215,000 Jews living in Palestine. It’s a big debate. Would there have been an Israel without the Shoah? It’s a huge debate that I don’t think can be answered. Different historians give completely different view, have different views on this. Hi, Vlad, lovely to see you again.

Q: “What were the other languages of the mandate?” A: English and Arabic.

Q: “How did he make a living, Ben-Yehuda?” A: He taught. He was a teacher, he wrote articles. None of these people were interested in money. They just needed enough to exist. They were extraordinary. You know, when Jabotinsky, Jabotinsky is another one. They lived modest lives. Ben-Gurion lived on a kibbutz when he could and had a small little flat in Tel Aviv. It was not, their story was about idealism. You know, it’s fascinating. Certain periods of history, it throws up great people, and not just in the Jewish world. Obviously I’m talking about Zionists, but there were a group of people, whether you agree with their politics or not, who did strive to have a moral compass. And in my opinion, one of the problems we are facing in today’s world is that very few leaders have that. I’m not talking Jew or Gentile, I’m talking about all of them at the moment. I can’t see enough moral compass at the moment. And it is quite extraordinary what we are prepared to put up with in the countries in which we live. That’s a personal statement from a woman living in London in Cross. The comparable numbers of Arabs, I don’t want to make a mistake on that. I have them, I’ll check them for you.

Q: Stuart, “Will I discuss Stalin’s alternative, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast?” A: Yes, of course. What we’re moving onto, you see, we will be dealing with aspects of the Russian Empire right up until July the 31st. This is what Wendy and I agreed. And I’ll be going quite far, I think. I’m definitely going to be dealing with Stalin and I’ll be dealing with the Robby John. We’ll be coming back to issues like Zionism later on, of course. Yes, I will be looking at it, Stuart.

Oh, he was buried on the Mount of Olives. Of course he was. Dr. Lecky, thank you very much. Mount, why did I say Scopus? That’s what I love about this. If I get it wrong, someone’s going to know.

Q: Ah, “If Jews were not allowed outside the Pale, how did St. Petersburg become one of the three main urban Jewish populations?” A: What happens, Neil, is under Alexander II, about a hundred thousand Jews who were either had money, because as Alexander industrialised, as you begin to see a class system in the Pale, they either had money, they had a trade or profession that was useful to Russia, or they had great artistic merit. The problem was that in 1891, the majority of them were thrown out of Moscow when Grand Duke Sergei became the governor of Moscow. So they were allowed in, and of course some amassed huge fortunes, like the Poliakoffs, the Kronenbergs, et cetera.

Hi Susan, nice to see you. I’m coming down to Cornwell again.

Q: Anna, “Did Herzl have a life of tragedy in his personal life?” A: Yes, Theodore Herzl had an absolutely tragic life. And don’t forget, he died aged 44. His family were all tragic.

Thank you, Rose. “Doesn’t the word Jew,” this is from Jeffrey Ben Nathan, “and its association with Judea, which is a territory, give us a bit of a clue?” I think that is, I think that’s a judgement . “Judaism is the only ism that is tripartite, a people, a land, a religion.” One of the problems, Linda, though, there is another definition, which I find completely problematic, but it’s applied usually by the enemies of the Jews, and that’s race. On Thursday, I’m looking at that ghastly forgery, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” Sorry, I’m going to turn the phone off. Sorry, my grandson has forgotten I’m lecturing. “In South Africa, nationality on a form, when I saw nationality on a form, I wrote Jewish,” yeah. “Today is the anniversary of the Law of Return. 5th of July, 1950.” Oh, that’s so interesting, Adrian. I love these kind of, I love these kind of, these games with words, yeah. Maybe it was Bechet. Brian and Carol, “I strongly recommend "Palestine, Land of Promise,” 1944, by Walter Clay.

This is from Tony, “As a member of the Youth Association of Synagogues of Great Britain, we campaigned in the 1970s during Gorbachev’s visit to Thatcher for Russia to release 400,000 Jews so they may be free to immigrate to Israel. Fast forward a few decades later, and we find that native Israelis and others considers these Russians to be very different and separate people and are a real problem to integrate progress.” Tony, are you expecting us to be normal people? Come on, one of the problems with Israel, they’ve integrated people from so many different countries. In the early days, the Ashkenazi population considered themselves the aristocrats. Then the Jews from the Arab world came and they had terrible problems. And so it’s gone on. Look in England, first the Sephardim, then the poor Ashkenazim, from Central Europe, then from Eastern Europe, and then from the German Austrian refugees, and then the South Africans, the Israelis and the Russians, so. And each group had problems with the group who were already there.

“Yes, it’s true what Ben-Gurion said, we can have criminals and prostitutes here.” And this is from Marion, another quote. “I’ve lived with you here in Israel for more than 40 years. Israel is just like any other country in the world, only more so.” Yes, one thing I do say, we do, we kind of do punch above our weight. “I’ve heard the statement about normal states. It may have been made by another Ben-Gurion, Aryeh, who was a well-known educator in Kibbutz Beit Hashita and spent two years in Toronto mentoring us.” Yes. Everyone’s going on about prostitution. I love it. “The North American day school system outside the Yeshiva helps navigate the tightrope. The US Schechter Schools, conservative community Orthodox such as Toronto associated Hebrew schools, impart Torah and secular studies and their graduates go on to lead the community and professions.” That is very encouraging, Marlene.

“Forgot Aryeh was,” Indie says, “was Ben-Gurion’s nephew.” Frida, “Bialik said that the Jews in Israel would be a normal country when we have Jewish prostitutes walking the streets. When I arrived in Israel, I realised this normality was achieved.” Oh, I love you, Frida. Thank you, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

“Talking of leadership with a dubious moral compass, Sunak and Javid had resigned.” Oh, wow. Good lord, that means… Okay. Wow. England is interesting again. Jonathan, “Don’t forget to include Jews gastronomically.” How can I not? “Ben Yehuda’s,” Della, yeah, “Ben Yehuda’s children were the first Hebrew speaking children.” Yes, of course. It must have been tough for them. I think they bought them a dog, 'cause, wasn’t it the daughter who wrote her autobiography, so they’d have somebody to talk to. Anyway, thank you all very much. Keep safe and I’ll see you offline, Judi, in a few minutes.

• [Judi] Yes, thank you, Trudy. Thank you everybody. Bye-bye.

• Thank you, bye.