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From Russia to Palestine via Poland: The Shifting Centre of Interwar Labour Zionism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2021
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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References
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36 Between 1921 and 1925 they operated a World Union, until they united with the Poalei Zion union.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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82 Protocol of the general convention of the Volhynia immigrant commune members, Równe 12–13.4.1926, GFHA, file 24362.
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