Bilu (movement)

Bilu (

On 6 July 1882, the first group of Bilu pioneers emigrated from Russia and arrived in Ottoman Palestine. The group consisted of fourteen university students from Kharkiv led by Israel Belkind, who was later a prominent writer and historian.^{[citation needed]}

The arrival of Bilu pioneers marked the beginning of the First Aliyah.^[3] They attempted to use farming societies as a way to relieve Jewish economical and social tensions from the Pale of Settlement.^[4] Jews were not farmers in the Pale of Settlement, so they saw the "return" to Palestine as a return to their historical practice of farming.^[5] As of 1882, there were 525 members in the Bilu movement, all of whom were controlled by the Kharkiv group or "The Central Bureau," controlled the affairs of all Bilu pioneers until all members were brought to Jaffa. The group aimed to set up a model settlement for all Jewry.^[6] The Kharkiv group attempted to buy enough land from Turkey so that the entirety of the membership might settle the prospective land, which would enable the Jews to own the land which they were hoping to farm. Responding to local pressures, the Ottoman authorities started restricting Jewish land purchase^[7] and immigration to the empire.^[8] Bilu pioneers sought approval from the Ottoman Empire to immigrate to Palestine on the grounds of seeking refuge from Russian oppression, but leadership in the Ottoman empire refused to take more refugees to avoid further political discourse.^[9] Most Bilu'im returned to Russia after receiving the news that they were not welcome in Palestine. However, fourteen members of the movement continued on to Palestine without the permission of the Ottoman Empire and arrived in July 1882.^[10] Some members of the Central Bureau went to Jaffa, but shortly after, arrival funds ran dry, and the group could not afford to send for the rest of the members waiting in Russia.

Most of the Jewish population consisted of

The Bilu movement's ideology consisted of six articles:[11]

1. The return of the people Israel to their historic land
2. The rejection of any discussion of national spiritual revival in favor of Jewish settlements in Palestine as the beginning of national rebirth
3. The dismissal of European Jewish emancipation and other progressive ideas as guarantees of Jewish survival
4. Bringing Jewish people to Palestine to form both physical colonies and spiritual centers
5. The recognition that territory is an essential part of Jewish national survival
6. The assertion of the society as pioneering and avant-garde

The movement was looking to educate Jewish youth based on the notion that the Jews would be outsiders in any land except for Palestine, where they should consider themselves native. Young people were the ideal audience because they were generally robust and likely capable of manual labor. The Bilu movement sought to spread the belief that even if Jewish people were to give up their Jewish identities to be accepted by their neighbors, they would never achieve true acceptance, and should therefore not relinquish their Jewish identities. One of the foundational beliefs of the Bilu movement was the belief that Jews should immigrate to Palestine. However, many Bilu'im were not financially prepared or emotionally equipped for emigration out of Europe. Leadership central to the movement, headquartered in Kharkiv (in modern day Ukraine), made it clear to many Bilu'im that the movement could not fund a mass emigration.^[6] Thus, should settlers struggle, they would have to turn to external sources for financial aid.

The Bilu'im was one of the few Zionist movements that focused on both personal and national revival.^[9] Scholar Baruch Kimmerling argues that the group was more religiously- than politically-motivated and that "the newcomers lacked a coherent ideological vision of the Jewish state and nation building."^[2] Yet "later Zionist historiography" claims the group retrospectively as progenitors of Jewish political society in Palestine.^[2] The movement sought to reinvigorate the Jew as a farmer in addition to its goal of ensuring Jewish survival through agricultural settlements.The movement was powered by a group ethos as opposed to the individual goals that motivated other pioneers to Ottoman Palestine.^{[citation needed]}

The Bilu movement wanted young Jews to immigrate to Palestine to create farming communities.

As time went on, the number of Bilu immigrants in Palestine began to decline. It was not easy to live as an agriculturalist in Palestine. Though agriculture was a part of the society, farming settlements tend to be beholden to a scope of natural weather disasters and do require some sort of financial backing to succeed.[13] As a result of challenging farming season,^[14] a lack of financial means, and the variability of wine fit for sale,^[15] the Russian Bilu'im ceased to exist. Similarly among other sects of Bilu'im, such as the activists in Constantinople, fiscal stability proved to be a problem for advancing the movement, and many activists emigrated to Palestine. There, they worked in agriculture as best they could, but continued to struggle.^[16] Some emigrated to the United States, funded by the director of the Israeli Mikveh. The aforementioned Gederah became the primary Bilu settlement, and it is known as such today.^[17]

• Aliyah
• First Aliyah
• Gar'in
• Hechalutz
• Isaiah 2
• Yishuv
• Youth village

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bilu'im.

• A history of Israel: Bilu