HECHALUTZ IN AMERICA

It was during the last two decades of the nineteenth century that groups of prospective settlers in Palestine were formed in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco; their ultimate fate is unknown. In that era, America welcomed a stream of emigrants from Russia, the Am Olam, who sought to become farmers in this country and actually laid the foundation for Jewish farm settlements in New Jersey and elsewhere. Am Olam far outnumbered the Biluim, who simultaneously were heading for Palestine from the Russian Pale.

It was not, however, until the dawn of the twentieth century that Zionism took hold in America and chalutzic efforts were revived on a more substantial scale. The abortive Russian revolution of 1905 sent more Jews fleeing to America and gave fresh impetus to the Zionist cause. In 1904, the Hatechiya organization, consisting of immigrant Zionists, initiated a chalutz group here. The next summer, Hechalutz itself was established. The by-laws adopted in 190~ make familiar reading today:

Our name, Hechalutz, expresses the essence of our ideology. We are the vanguard of our people in its struggle for regeneration in its homeland. Our outlook and our convictions require no sanction of theory. We are children of the Jewish nation. Our close ties with it are natural as those of a family. Only abnormal people lack national consciousness or find expression for it in chauvinism.

While rejecting the argument of assimilationists, the founders of Hechalutz had a positive view as to the way in which they would strive to rebuild Palestine—the collective way. And this was several years before the founding of Degania, the first collective settlement in Palestine.

While ideologically the American Hechalutz of that period was akin to the movement in Europe, there was virtually no practical contact with that section or with Palestine itself. The existence of the Second Aliya was apparently unknown here. The American movement made little headway, and the handful of members concentrated on training themselves. A group enrolled at the Woodbine Agricultural School in 1908, and, despite the anti-Zionist tenor of the institution, held meetings and published a bi-monthly. They contacted other youths and in October held a meeting in Philadelphia where the Haikar Hatzair organization was formally launched.

In 1911, Haikar Hatzair concluded an agreement with Dr. Arthur Ruppin to send a dozen members to take over a farm at Kinneret in 1912. However, only four members actually went to Palestine; they Joined some other workers on the scene, forming the first "American kvutza." Among the Americans was a California-trained agriculturist, named Berele Klei, who introduced systematic methods and was known as "The American."

With the outbreak of World War I, a new turn of events brought two leaders of Palestinian Jewry to America: David Ben-Gurion and Itzhak Ben-Zvi arrived in 19H. They zealously started a campaign to organize Hechalutz, to prepare a reserve of pioneers for Palestine when hostilities ceased. About one hundred fifty young men signed up. They began to study Hebrew and to work on farms. Many subsequently joined the Jewish Legion; and, of these, some remained permanently in Palestine.

The post-war immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe to America brought youthful elements already endowed with a chalutz background. However, the majority of the newcomers were swamped in the struggle to exist in the new environment.

Individuals went to Palestine. New groups were formed and disbanded. An attempt was made in 1924-2~ to establish a training farm at Flagtown, New Jersey. A more ambitious attempt was made by the "Detroit Kvutza," a group of twelve young men and women who spent the summer of 1930 at another New Jersey farm and sailed that December for Palestine. The guiding spirit of that group was Joseph Baratz of Degania,, who was then visiting America as a shaliach (emissary) of the Histadrut. The same year, a group from the Hashomer Hatzair movement, having trained at an Eariton, New York, farm, sailed for Palestine.

The foregoing is a brief resume of happenings prior to the formation of the Hechalutz organization, which was by far the largest and most effective medium to perform in this area of Zionist life up to the formation of the State of Israel.

The year 1929 must be marked as the psychological watershed in the history of the movement. In that year, Jewry was stirred by the massacre of yeshiva students by Arabs in Hebron and the callous attitude of the British, mandatory power. The Great Depression that was born in 1929 shook the common belief that the United States was the sole land of opportunity. Sharp criticism of the capitalist way of life was received by receptive ears, and the appeal of the kibbutz. was made more alluring. Disgust with the hedonism of the younger generation made the noble ideals of a Jewish cultural renaissance shine brighter than ever. And Palestine itself, having emerged from the birth pains of Jewish colonization, was more ready to send leaders and teachers who could deliver the message of chalutziut to an American born generation of Jews.

In 1932, a committee was established by the various American Zionist bodies, in conjunction with the movement in Palestine—the Vaad L'Maan Hechalutz. A leading spirit in the venture was a member of Degania Bet, Hillel Giladi. The committee was composed of representatives of the Poale Zion-Zeire Zion, Pioneer Women, Farband, Avukah, Young Judaei, Gordonia, Young Poale Zion Alliance, Junior Hadassah, and the League for Jewish Youth.

During the first year, a training farm was opened at Parkeville, Maryland; the Hechalutz Bulletin was inaugurated, and fourteen branches organized, with one hundred thirty members. Word of the movement spread rapidly from coast to coast, but in some instances there were cases of "spontaneous generation"—it seemed as though the idea had ripened in a number of communities at the same time.

In Minnesota, a small group of college students founded a training farm near Anoka. The same April, twenty-eight American chalutzim received aliya certificates and sailed for Degania Bet, accompanied by Hillel Giladi. A communal apartment was set up in New York, the first of several that had more or less permanence in that city and elsewhere.

With the arrival of the first official delegate from Palestine to the movement, Lassya Galili, in October, plans were made for the first convention of Hechalutz in December, 1933. The Vaad L'maan Hechalutz turned over the affairs of the organization to a duly elected executive committee of Hechalutz members. Shortly thereafter, an aliya group went first to Kinneret and then to Afikim.

In the years following, Hechalutz embarked on a hachshara (vocational training) program that involved a number of farms in the East, the Midwest, and the Pacific coast, as well as Canada. The center, however, remained in New Jersey, where the Brown Farm at Hightstown was leased in 1934.

In 1936, another ebullient delegate of Histadrut arrived to serve as shaliach to the movement—Italian-born Enzo Sereni. Under his direction, a farm was purchased at Creamridge, New Jersey, which was to serve for more than a decade as a training center for Habonim chalutzim and as a mecca for thousands of friends of the movement.

There were some internal factors disrupting the effectiveness of the organization, which, at best, had a hard uphill battle. The partisan approach of the constituent bodies, notably Hashomer Hatzair, diverted energies from more constructive activities. Hechalutz, as an organizational entity, was visualized as a broad body, open to all who shared its basic ideals. The member need not subscribe to any specific ideology, even though the kibbutz form of living was stressed. Hashomer Hatzair, with its sectarian approach, sought full autonomy within the general framework. This demand was resisted to the extent that only with the intervention of David Ben-Gurion was a compromise reached: Hashomer Hatzair was granted an autonomous hachshara farm, but in other respects its chaverim were to be like all other individual members of the organization.

Just before the outbreak of World War II, a major source of leadership was made available to Hechalutz and Habonim. The writer was sent on a mission to Palestine in the summer of 1938, to discuss with the labor leaders the problems confronting us in America. Deep interest in these matters was shown by David Ben-Gurion, David Rernez, Eliahu Dobkin, and Berl Katzenelson. The idea of a large delegation —at least five persons—to come for a prolonged period was readily accepted. On the way back from Palestine, the writer again met with Berl Katzenelson in London, to clarify the educational approach to the new American elements coming into our ranks; it was agreed that around a chalutzic nucleus we were to strive to build a Labor Zionist oriented mass, but chalutziut as such was not to be a compulsory feature of our approach. This policy was integrated into the Habonim program.

Another side effect of that stop-over in London was the first direct contact between American and British chalutz groups. The writer met with Habonim and Hechalutz elements—including Avraham Harman, Moshe Peariman, Lily Beyrack, and others. This link helped establish relations between us and the Anglo-Baltic kibbutz at Binyamina, which eventually created Kfar Blum.

The delegation, headed by Yosef Israeli of Afikim, and including Aharon Rernez, Moshe Levin, Zev Chernietsky, Mala Gitlin, and Shalom Wurm, arrived in the nick of time. World War II burst out, and the living contact with the yishuv was almost suspended for the duration of the war. The last group of olim sailed in September, 1939, just as the Nazi invasion of Poland got under way.

In peacetime, aliya was restricted by the shortage of immigration certificates, which were being doled out by the British; and Zionist authorities had little choice but to give priority to those fleeing from Hitler. Americans had to stand by and take what few could be extracted after long negotiations. Some arrangements were made to get our people into Palestine as tourists, thus dispensing with the certificates altogether. This method involved complicated transactions that gave a sense of the dramatic to the adventure, but the numbers who could go were still limited. War caused a complete stoppage of aliya, Activities were then concentrated on the training farms.

(With the birth of the State of Israel, Hechalutz as a formal entity soon lost much of its original raison d'etre. Habonim, the pillar of the organization, decided to liquidate the program of American-based training centers, and to send to Israel the Workshop groups.) 

Since the principal aim of Hechalutz was to train pioneers for life in Palestine, with special emphasis on the kibbutz, most of the energy of the membership was directed toward this goal. No absolute statistics are available, but the fact is that hundreds of young men and women did go through the ranks of the movement, many achieving aliya and many drifting away before taking the final steps toward self-realization. Those who settled in Israel have made a notable contribution to the life of the country. The chaverim who came to Israel faced many special problems: lack of adequate preparation, an easy road back to America, insufficient understanding of their mentality on the part of the Israelis, and so on.

The overall influence of Hechalutz cannot be measured solely by the number of pioneers who went to Israel under its auspices. Many more young people, having had some contact with the movement, must have been inspired to venture abroad and see what the experiment was all about. The adult Zionist movement, too, gained spiritual substance during the nearly two decades when Hechalutz was in its prime.

NAHUM GUTTMAN, New York, 1960