Today, the 12th of Tishrei, is the yahrzeit of Abraham Menachem Mendel Ussishkin (1863–1941), Zionist leader, member of Hovevei Zion, and president of the Jewish National Fund. Born in Russia, Ussishkin, while still in his teens, became an avid reader of the works of contemporary Hebrew writers, and, from then on, the revival of the Hebrew language became one of his guiding principles. He became an active Zionist, and founded a Jewish students' society while still a student in Moscow. In 1885, he was chosen secretary of all the Hovevei Zion groups in Moscow. He viewed agricultural settlement in Eretz Israel as the main goal of Zionism.
Ussishkin visited Eretz Israel for the first time in 1891, and, from then on, was active in Hebrew education as well as in Zionist propaganda and fund raising. He was a delegate to the 1st Zionist Congress (1897), and took an active part in formulating the first article of the Basle Program. He expressed his fear that too explicit a formulation of Zionist aims might rouse the Turkish government against the existing yishuv. He also expressed his opposition to pure political Zionism at the expense of settlement and cultural work. At the 2nd Congress (1898), he was elected to the Zionist General Council and served on it for the rest of his life. He introduced Zionist activities into the non-Ashkenazi communities in the Caucasus. Ussishkin bitterly opposed the Uganda Scheme, and initiated the Kharkov Conference (1903), which demanded that Herzl abandon the scheme. Ussishkin published “Our Program”, which laid the five-point foundation for ‘synthetic Zionism’: political action, acquisition of land, aliyah, settlement, and educational and organizational work among the people. This approach thereafter dominated the Zionist Movement. In his pamphlet, he spoke of farms and of settlements in which Jewish workers would cultivate the land acquired by the JNF with their own hands, without hired laborers. “Our Program” became the platform of practical Zionism, which gave rise to the Second Aliyah. In the winter of 1912, he spoke of the need for a Hebrew university, and initiated a resolution to allocate 50,000 gold francs for the purpose of acquiring land on Mount Scopus. Ussishkin played an important role in the establishment of the Hebrew University, and was among those who officially inaugurated it on April 1, 1925.
Ussishkin organized a mass demonstration in Odessa to celebrate the Balfour Declaration that was attended by 200,000 people, Jews and non-Jews alike. At the invitation of Weizmann and Nahum Sokolow, he attended the Paris Peace Conference, and on Feb. 27, 1919, he stood before the assembled representatives of the nations of the world as the representative of the Jewish people and addressed them in Hebrew.
In November 1919 Ussishkin settled in Palestine and was the head of the Zionist Commission. In 1921, he left for the U.S. with Albert Einstein to promote the fund-raising campaign for Keren Hayesod. He was chosen to head the JNF, and retained this position for nearly 20 years (1923–41). He devoted himself completely to the idea of acquiring land as the property of the nation, and was personally involved in the necessary fund-raising. Due to his efforts, large tracts of land throughout the country were purchased. He increased the property of the JNF from 22,000 to 561,000 dunams.
He was elected chairman of the Zionist General Council at the 19th Congress in 1935. He fought partition, and fought against the British White Paper of May 1939 that forbade Jews from purchasing land in most areas of the country.
Ussishkin's activities were widely admired, and in 1939, when the JNF purchased land north of the Huleh Valley, it was decided to found a series of settlements called Metzudot Ussishkin (Ussishkin Forts) in his honor. For 60 years, no Zionist or Jewish national activity took place in which he had not participated and on which he had not left his own unique stamp. [Encyclopedia Judaica] |
