Reflections on the Failure of the Lovers of Zion

yossi goldstein

In this article, we focus on the rift between the two sociocultural groups that constituted Hibbat Zion-the maskilim and the ultra-Orthodox-and on its overall activity. It seems clear that the Jews in Russia were not ready for a movement aimed at establishing a Jewish national entity in Palestine. After 1885, many of them felt that despite anti-Semitism, their living conditions were improving and only a few among them sought to emigrate to the USA. Only a small minority saw their destination as Eretz Israel, yet it was this relatively inconsequential minority that fuelled the activity of Hibbat Zion, even though only very few of them actually believed in the possibility of settling in Palestine. Hibbat Zion and the Odessa Committee both failed to achieve the goals they set for themselves. Yet, we must acknowledge that the very existence of these Jewish national movements and the evolution of patterns of activity and the leadership they engendered paved the way for the development of a national home for the Jews in Palestine. Their members and their leadership established structures that provided a foundation for those who succeeded them: Herzl's Zionist Organization and the state of Israel. By the time the Odessa Committee, 1 the legal successor of the Hibbat Zion movement, 2 met in Odessa for its third triennial convention from July 7 to 13, 1896, its delegates could have no doubt that their movement was in the midst of a serious crisis (CZA 1896, A9/18). According to the Committee's report to the convention delegates, the troubles it faced stemmed primarily from the careless work of the Executive Committee in Jaffa, the Odessa-based movement's branch in Palestine, and, equally as important, from the flourishing of settlement in Argentina and the extraordinary conditions with which Baron Hirsch and the J. C. A. were providing settlers there (CZA, "Heshbon va'ad hahevra," 4-5). Regardless of why it was unable to embark upon a new path, there was general consensus surrounding the assertion of Shmaryahu Levin, a prominent young activist within the Lovers of Zion, that "disillusionment with the Odessa Committee was increasing by the day" (CZA 1895, A126/31/3). In comparison with the statistics from the period of crisis (1890-1892), the following three years reflected an improvement in movement operations, with total membership at the end of the period (1895) standing at 4,144, in comparison to 4,839 during its first year in operation and 2,772 in 1892. The same was true of total donations, which stood at 45,799 rubles in 1890, dropped to 26,466 rubles two years later, and in 1895, once again climbed to its earlier level (42,392 rubles). Similarly, in a summation of the