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From Russia to Palestine via Poland: The Shifting Centre of Interwar Labour Zionism

Part of: Eastern European–Middle Eastern Relations: Continuities and Changes from the Time of Empires to the Cold War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2021

Rona Yona Open the ORCID record for Rona Yona [Opens in a new window]
Rona Yona*
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Tel Aviv University and Oranim Academic College, Israel
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ronayona@tauex.tau.ac.il
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Abstract

Under British rule Palestine gradually emerged as the new centre of Zionism. The Zionist centre shifted from Eastern and Central Europe to Mandatory Palestine through a combined process of mass migration and the creation of transnational institutions. By exploring the building of transnational institutions in the 1920's, this article shows how the Labour Zionist leadership in Palestine turned its communities of origin in Eastern Europe into their supporters. With the rapid decline of the former Russian centre under the communist dictatorship, independent Poland emerged as a new centre of Zionism and the labour movement outside Palestine. The two new centres were connected by a dual structure, with Poland as the demographic centre and Palestine the political-cultural one. The dual-centre structure was unique to Labour Zionism, building a mass movement between Eastern Europe and Palestine in the 1930s, and leading ultimately to the transition of power from liberal Zionism to a Labour hegemony.

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Contemporary European History , Volume 30 , Special Issue 4: European-Middle Eastern Relations: Continuities and Changes from the Time of Empires to the Cold War , November 2021 , pp. 513 - 527
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 The classical works on Labour in Palestine include: Shapira, Anita, Berl: The Biography of a Socialist Zionist, Berl Katznelson, 1887–1944 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984)Google Scholar; Gorni, Yosef, Ahdut Haavoda, 1919–1930 (Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1979)Google Scholar; Tzahor, Zeev, ‘The Histadrut: From Marginal Organization to “State-in-the-Making”’, in Reinharz, Yehuda and Shapira, Anita, eds., Essential papers on Zionism (New York: New York University Press, 1996) 473–508Google Scholar; Horowitz, Dan and Lissak, Moshe, Origins of the Israeli Polity: Palestine under the Mandate (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978)Google Scholar.

2 Leading studies focused on the flow of funds, knowledge and bodies from Europe into Palestine: Metzer, Jacob, National Capital for a National Home (Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi, 1979)Google Scholar; Penslar, Derek, Zionism and Technocracy: The Engineering of Jewish Settlement in Palestine, 1870–1918 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991)Google Scholar; Frankel, Jonathan, Prophecy and Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 366–452Google Scholar; Alroey, Gur, An Unpromising Land: Jewish Migration to Palestine in the Early Twentieth Century (Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 2014)Google Scholar.

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4 This article brings methodologically sophisticated recent studies on popular Jewish politics in interwar Poland into dialogue with transnational histories of Zionism, such as Moss, Kenneth B., ‘Negotiating Jewish Nationalism in Interwar Warsaw’, in Dynner, Glenn and Guesnet, François, eds., Warsaw: Jewish Metropolis (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 390–434Google Scholar; Ury, Scott, Barricades and Banners: The Revolution of 1905 and the Transformation of Warsaw Jewry (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2012) 141–71Google Scholar; Kamil Kijek, ‘Violence as Political Experience among Jewish Youth in Interwar Poland’, in Benjamin Nathans, Kenneth Moss and Taro Tsurumi, eds., From Europe's East to the Middle East: Israel's Russian and Polish Lineages, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press (due 2021) 243–70; Heller, Daniel K., Jabotinsky's Children: Polish Jews and the Rise of Right-Wing Zionism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017), 28–67Google Scholar.

5 I borrow this term from the essential volume edited by Geyer, Martin H and Paulmann, Johannes, The Mechanics of Internationalism: Culture, Society, and Politics from the 1840s to the First World War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 1–26Google Scholar, which I extend to the interwar years.

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7 Namely the Israel Labour Party Archive, Beit Berl (ILPA), Yad Tabenkin, Hakibbutz Hame'uhad Archives (YTA), Pinhas Lavon Institute for Labour Movement Research (Labour Archive), Ghetto Fighters’ House Archive (GFHA), Ben Gurion Archive (BGA), published memoirs and periodicals.

8 Another 10 per cent lived in the German speaking world, 6.5 per cent in the Muslim world, 4.4 per cent in Western Europe and 3 per cent in the Americas. I included only the Orthodox Hungarian community in ‘Eastern Europe’. Calculations are mine based on Jakob Lestschinsky ‘Die Umsiedlung und Umschichtung des jüdischen Volkes im Laufe des letzten Jahrhunderts’, Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, 30 (1929), 132.

9 Hundert, Gershon David, Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century: A Genealogy of Modernity (Berkeley; Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004), 1–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Vilnius was known as the ‘Jerusalem of Lithuania’, Ben Zion Dinur, ‘Yerushalayim delita’ in Leyzer Ran, ed., Jerusalem of Lithuania, Illustrated and Documented, Volume 1 (New York: Vilna Album Committee, 1974). On the marginality of Russian and Russian Jewish modernisation, see Nathans, Benjamin, Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 303–12Google Scholar. On modern schooling in Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian see Mordechai Zalkin, Modernizing Jewish Education in Nineteenth Century Eastern Europe (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 41–62; Nathans, Beyond the Pale 201–56; Frost, Shimon, Schooling as a Socio-Political Expression (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1998), 27–69Google Scholar.

10 Zipperstein, Elusive Prophet, ch. 4; Aschheim, Steven E., Brothers and Strangers: The East European Jew in German and German Jewish Consciousness, 1800–1923 (Chicago: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982), 80–100Google Scholar.

11 Mendelsohn, On Modern Jewish Politics, 3–36.

12 Frankel, Prophecy and Politics, 329–94.

13 Ibid., 366–547. The American section numbered 5,000 at its peak in 1918. See Rachel Rojanski, Conflicting Identities: Poalei Zion in America, 1905–1930 (Hebrew), 72–88; Mark Raider, The Emergence of American Zionism (New York: New York University Press, 1998), 202–15.

14 Anita Shapira, ‘Berl, Tabenkin, and Ben-Gurion and Their Attitudes to the Russian Revolution’, Zmanim: A Historical Quarterly, 27/28 (1988) 80–97 (Hebrew).

15 During the Zionist Congress that convened in The Hague, Netherlands. Balshan, Zvia, The Jewish Socialist Labor Confederation Poalei Zion, 1907–1920 (Hebrew) (Sde Boker: Ben Gurion Research Institute, 2004), 53–76Google Scholar.

16 For example, Balshan, Poalei Zion, 287–95, 303.

17 Ziva Galili, ‘The Soviet Experience of Zionism: Importing Soviet Political Culture to Palestine’, Journal of Israeli History, 1 (2005), 4.

18 Mendelsohn, Zionism in Poland, 1–2, 213–2.

19 See, for example, a singular publication issued by the central committee of the Zionist Youth party (Tseirei Tsiyon) with instructions for pioneer immigration, Yedies vegn Hechalutz (Bialystok, early 1919).

20 The victims were executed by a firing squad after they were charged with spying and supporting communism. The massacre was investigated by American-Jewish diplomat Henry Morgenthau Sr. Azriel Shohet, The Jews of Pinsk 1881 to 1941 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2012), 358–457.

21 Hershl Pinski: Leyom Hashana (Warsaw: Hechalutz, 1936), 13–9; Yisraeli, Aaron, Jewish Workers’ Parties in Pinsk (Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1979), 49Google Scholar.

22 Haim Gvati, Gvat: Sources and History (Hebrew) (Gvat, 1937), 82–6.

23 See, for example, letter of the regional secretary of Hechalutz in Polesia about the dilemmas of the group in Palestine, including which kibbutz movement to join. Hershl Pinski to Eliyahu Golomb (secretary of Ahdut Ha'avoda), 27.10 [1924], Labour Archive, IV-104-40-3.

24 Yedies vegn Hechalutz (Bialystok, early 1919); Hechalutz (newspaper, Yiddish, Warsaw), 26.5.1919; Hechalutz (circular) of the Lithuanian committee in Vilnius, Dec. 1922, Labour Archive; Snyder, Timothy, The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 52–65Google Scholar.

25 Eliyahu Dobkin, ‘Hathalat irguno ha-‘olami shel he-haluts’, in Me'asef li-tnu‘at he-haluts (Warsaw: Hechalutz, 1930), 177–8.

26 Ben-Avram, Baruch and Near, Henry, Studies in the Third Aliyah (1919–1924): Image and Reality (Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi, 1995), 17–46Google Scholar.

27 Ziva Galili, ‘Zionism in the Early Soviet State: Between Legality and Persecution’, in Zvi Gitelman and Yaacov Ro'I, eds., Revolution, Repression, and Revival: The Soviet Jewish Experience (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers), 37–67.

28 Ziva Galili, ‘Carving out a Space for Zionism in Soviet Russia in the 1920s’, Iyunim (2004), 480 (Hebrew); idem, ‘Zionism in the Early Soviet State’, 47.

29 Pinkus, Benjamin, The Jews of the Soviet Union: The History of a National Minority (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 130–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Galili, ‘Carving out a Space for Zionism’.

31 Pinkus, The Jews of the Soviet Union, 134–5. From 1924 delegations of TsS and Hechalutz outside the Soviet Union provided information and aid to members and prisoners. Sefer TsS (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1963), 469–74; Hechalutz in Russia (Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Hapoel Hatzair, 1932), 6.

32 On immigration in the second half of the 1920s see Galili, ‘The Soviet Experience of Zionism’, 1–33.

33 Joseph Goldstein, ‘The Beginnings of the Zionist Movement in Congress Poland: The Victory of the Hasidim over the Zionists?’ POLIN, 5 (1990), 114–30.

34 Zilber, Marcos, Different Nationality, Equal Citizenship! The Efforts to Achieve Autonomy for Polish Jewry During the First World War (Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2014)Google Scholar.

35 See, for example, Bacon, Gershon, ‘Polish Jews and the Minorities Treaties Obligations, 1925: The View from Geneva’, Gal-Ed, 18 (2002), 145–76Google Scholar.

36 Between 1921 and 1925 they operated a World Union, until they united with the Poalei Zion union.

37 Yisrael Marminsky to Meir Bogdanovski, Labour Archive, VI-230-10; Alexander Manor, Commitment and Creative Action: The Life and Work of Israel Merom (Mereminsky) (Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Public Committee, 1978).

38 Naor, Mordechai, Hahotem ha‘asiri: Eliyahu Dobkin (Mikve Yisrael: Yehuda Dekel Library, 2012), 9–45Google Scholar.

39 Oppenheim, Israel, Hehalutz movement in Poland, 1917–1929 (Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Magnes Press 1982), 115Google Scholar.

40 Hechalutz (newspaper, Hebrew, Warsaw), Aug. 1923, 56.

41 Rashish, for example, was mayor of Petah Tikva, and Ritow head of the Central Union of Cooperatives.

42 Bankover, Yosef, Sipurim mi-derekh arukah (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1975), 18–26Google Scholar; Yoeli, Zalman, Pinhas Rashish (Tel Aviv: Federation of Local Authorities, 1981), 47–53Google Scholar.

43 Eliezer Leoni-Tsuperfain, ed., Sefer Kovel, Tel Aviv 1956, 282–4.

44 See, for example, the dense socialist economic discussions in the renewed organ they published, which was edited by Ritow, Hechalutz (newspaper, Hebrew, Warsaw), Mar. 1923.

45 Yona, Rona, ‘Yiddish Speaking Hebrews: Language and Distribution in Hechalutz Press in Interwar Poland’, Gal-Ed, 25 (2017) 110–7Google Scholar (Hebrew).

46 Bacon, Gershon, ‘National Revival, Ongoing Acculturation: Jewish Education in Interwar Poland’, Yearbook of the Simon Dubnow Institute, 1 (2002) 71–92Google Scholar.

47 Pinski to Golomb, 27.10 [1924], Labour Archive, IV-104-40-3.

48 Zilber, Different Nationality, Equal Citizenship, 9.

49 Shapira, Berl, 87.

50 Moshe Beilinson, ‘Hateuda omedet be'eyna’, Davar, 2.3.1928.

51 Balshan, Poalei Zion, 291–2.

52 Dobkin, ‘Hathalat irguno ha-‘olami’, 177–8. Golan, Haim, ‘The Hechalutz Committee in Eretz Israel in 1920’, Cathedra, 77 (1995) 66–99Google Scholar (Hebrew).

53 One exception was the Work Battalion (Gdud Ha'avoda), who returned to the Soviet Union in the late 1920s. Shapira, Anita, ‘Gedud ha-Avodah: A Dream That Failed’, Jerusalem Quarterly, 30 (1984), 62–76Google Scholar.

54 Pinkus, The Jews of the Soviet Union, 134–5.

55 Ibid., 71.

56 On anti-British and pro-Arab Soviet foreign policy in Palestine see Benjamin Pinkus, ‘Communism and Zionism: The Relations Between the Bolshevik Movement and the Soviet Union and the Zionist Movement and the Yishuv, 1903–1930’ (Hebrew) Shvut, 12 (2004–5), 71–81.

57 See its founding charter, Hapoel Hatzair, 17.12.1920, 4–5.

58 Migration from Eastern Europe to Palestine extended across Eurasia from the Netherlands to China. See personal accounts and letters in Me'asef, 31–95.

59 Ibid., 178.

60 Oppenheim, Hehalutz Movement in Poland, 10.

61 Hapoel Hatzair, 17.12.1920, 16.

62 D-N, E. [Dobkin Eliyahu], ‘Hamisrad haolami’, Hechalutz (Warsaw), Mar. 1923, 10–4.

63 Ben Gurion to Dobkin, 12.7.1922, BGA.

64 Uriel Friedland to Dobkin, 26.5 [1923], ILPA, 4-14-1923-11.

65 Countries by size: Poland, Galicia (separately organised), Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Netherland, Belgium, France, England, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, South Africa, United States, Argentina, Brazil and Cuba. In 1935 only 70 per cent were in Eastern Europe due to a sharp increase in Germany; usually it was higher, with 85 per cent in 1933 for example. Moshe Basok, ed., Sefer he-Halutz, 415.

66 Friedland to Dobkin, 26.5 [1923], ILPA, 4-14-1923-11.

67 Bogdanovski to Dobkin, [end of Sept. 1923], ILPA, 4-14-1923-11.

68 Except Dobkin, who replaced Bogdanovski between 1926 and 1932. Trained by Bogdanovski and meeting regularly with the Palestine leadership during their visits in Europe and his trip to Tel Aviv in 1925, he became their supporter. Naor, Hahotem ha‘asiri, 30–41.

69 The Polish movement's newspaper assumed this role in 1924. See Hechalutz, 17.3.1924. Replaced by Heatid in 1925.

70 See, for example, the prolific correspondence of Melech Neustadt/Najsztat-Noi (1895–1959) who headed both organisations in different years, Labour Archive, IV-104-89-142 to 166.

71 He was showcasing the Histadrut pavilion at the Agricultural Exhibition.

72 Anita Shapira, A Dream that Failed: The Political Development of Gdud Haavoda, 1920–1927 (Hebrew) (MA thesis, Tel Aviv University, 1963), 56.

73 The Work Battalion and the United Kibbutz Movement (Hakibbutz Hameuchad, also known as Ein Harod) split in 1923. Future kibbutz movements operated similarly (Hashomer Hatzair formed in 1927 and Hever Hakvutzot founded in 1929). Ein Harod, Secretariat Protocol, 26.11.1924, YTA, 1-2/1/1B.

74 See, for example, Bogdanovski's letters from Nov. 1924, ILPA, 4-14-1923-11; Ein Harod, Secretariat Protocol, 17.2.1925, YTA, 1-2/1/1B.

75 Eretz-yisraelim (ארצישראלים) in contemporary discourse, from the Hebrew name of Mandatory Palestine (Land of Israel).

76 Such as Abraham Tarshish of Ein Harod in the Vilnius region and Eliezer Joffe of Nahalal in central Poland. Oppenheim, Hehalutz Movement in Poland, 438.

77 He replaced Dobkin who became secretary of the World Centre. Haim Dan, ed., Sefer Klosova (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1978), 114.

78 The League for Labour Palestine (Histadrut Eretz Yisrael Haovedet).

79 Led by the United Hebrew Trades, Rojanski, Conflicting Identities, 72–88, 223–31, 257–62, 310–47, esp. 370–2, 393–408.

80 Davar, 1.3.1932, 1.

81 Protocol of the meeting of the secretariat of Hakibbutz Hame'uhad with Bogdanovski, 28 July 1925, YTA, 1-2/1/1B.

82 Protocol of the general convention of the Volhynia immigrant commune members, Równe 12–13.4.1926, GFHA, file 24362.

83 They were members of a small movement called Freedom (Dror) who escaped Soviet Ukraine. See, for example, Bankover, Sipurim mi-derekh arukah, 18–29.

84 Yona, Rona, ‘A Kibbutz in the Diaspora’, Journal of Israeli History, 31, 1 (2012), 16–20Google Scholar.

85 See a local activist parroting the rhetoric of Tabenkin after the seminar in August 1927, Sefer Klosova, 121–2.

86 Data for Hakibbutz Hameuchad. Near, Henry, The Kibbutz Movement: A History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992)Google Scholar.

87 Blau-Weiß Bund für Jüdisches Jugendwandern in Deutschland; Jung-judischer Wanderbund.

88 Hannah, Weiner, Youth in Ferment Within a Complacent Community: The Zionist Youth Movements and Hechalutz in Germany (Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Yad Tabenkin, 1996), 276, 415–8Google Scholar.

89 Ben Gurion Diary, 11.4-18.5.1933, BGA. Yona, ‘Jewish Politics without Borders’.