Pinhas Rutenberg

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Pinhas Rutenberg
Pinhas Rutenberg c. 1940
Born(1879-02-05)5 February 1879
Romny, north of Poltava, Russian Empire
Died3 January 1942(1942-01-03) (aged 62)
Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine

Pinhas Rutenberg (

Jewish National Council
.

Socialist and revolutionary

Pinhas Rutenberg was born in the town of

George Gapon. Gapon collaborated in secret with the Police Department (the Okhrana
), which believed this to be the way to control the workers' movement. Rutenberg became Gapon's friend, which made him a noticeable figure in the S.R. party.

For Sunday, 22 January [

Emperor. Rutenberg participated, with his party's approval. In a tragic turn of events, army pickets fired directly into the crowd, and hundreds were killed. Amid the panic, Rutenberg retained self-control and actually saved Gapon's life, taking him away from gunfire. This incident, known as Bloody Sunday, sparked the Russian Revolution of 1905
.

Gapon and Rutenberg fled abroad, being welcomed in Europe both by prominent Russian emigrants (such as

Georgy Plekhanov and Vladimir Lenin), and by French socialist leaders (such as Jean Jaurès and Georges Clemenceau
). Before the end of 1905, Rutenberg returned to Russia, and Gapon followed him.

Gapon soon revealed to Rutenberg his contacts with the police and tried to recruit him, too, reasoning that double loyalty was helpful to the workers' cause. However, Rutenberg betrayed his trust and reported this provocation to his party leaders, Yevno Azef and Boris Savinkov. Azef demanded that the traitor be put to death. Ironically, he was in fact an agent provocateur himself, exposed by Vladimir Burtsev in 1908.

On 26 March 1906, Gapon arrived to meet Rutenberg in a rented cottage outside Saint Petersburg, and after a month Gapon was found there hanged. Rutenberg asserted later that Gapon was condemned by a comrades' court and that three S.R. party combatants overheard their conversation from the next room. After Gapon had repeated his collaboration proposal, Rutenberg called the comrades into the room and he left. When he returned, Gapon was dead.

However, the S.R. party leadership refused to assume responsibility, announcing that the execution was undertaken by Rutenberg individually and that the cause was a personal one, denying ever having sent their comrades to the meeting on 26 March. Rutenberg was then condemned and expelled from the party.

Turn to Zionism

Pinhas Rutenberg c. 1942.

Forced to emigrate, Rutenberg settled in

Jewish
problems, he became convinced that the solution was to establish a national home for the Jewish people.

After

Zeev Jabotinsky and Joseph Trumpeldor to set up the Jewish Legion. In May 1915, on Jabotinsky's approval, Rutenberg travelled to the United States
to promote this idea among the American Jewry.

He found strong support among Jewish organizations in

Itzhak Ben-Zvi, and Ber Borochov. Together with Chaim Zhitlowsky, he founded the American Jewish Congress. At the same time, Rutenberg published his book The National Revival of the Jewish People under the pseudonym Pinhas Ben-Ami (in Hebrew
: my people's son).

While in the US, Rutenberg managed to complete a detailed design for utilizing the Land of Israel's hydraulic resources for irrigation and electrical power production, which was his long-time dream.

Anti-Bolshevik

Passport used by Pinhas Rutenberg in 1919 to escape from Odessa

Rutenberg greeted the Russian February Revolution of 1917, and in July 1917 he returned to Petrograd, welcomed by the prime minister of the Russian Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, also an S.R party member. Despite 12 years of absence in Russia, Rutenberg was soon named vice-president of the Petrograd municipality, the local Duma.

In a couple of months,

Bolsheviks
prevailed, he was arrested and put in jail, together with the "capitalist ministers".

In March 1918, when German troops approached Petrograd, the Bolsheviks released Rutenberg, among many others. He moved to Moscow, the new capital, and took a position in the

Odessa, where he was a member of the defense committee. The city was governed by White Russians who were supported by the French army. On 17 March 1919 he managed to obtain a Russian passport and with an exit visa boarded an American vessel that took him to the Allied-controlled city of Constantinople. From there he sailed to Marseille, later going on to the United Kingdom before departing to British Mandate of Palestine
.

In Palestine

Further information: First Jordan Hydro-Electric Power House
The first diesel-powered station in Tel Aviv, architect Joseph Berlin, built in 1923[1]
The Naharayim power station. 1935
Naharayim. 1937
Ruins of the Naharayim power station. 2009

In 1919, Rutenberg appeared in

James A. de Rothschild
and, finally, settled in Palestine to realise it.

However, his first contribution after arrival was establishing, together with Jabotinsky, the Jewish self-defense militia, the Haganah.[dubious – discuss] Rutenberg was the chief officer of these troops in Tel Aviv during the Arab hostilities in 1921.

He participated in the demarcation of Mandatory Palestine's northern border, defining British and French areas of interest.

In 1921 – over fierce Arab-Palestinian protests against giving the

hydro-electric power station on the Auja (Yarkon) river.[2]
In 1923, Rutenberg founded the
Hugo Hirst, the Director of the General Electric Company
, to be members of his Corporation Council.

The formidable achievement of Rutenberg was the "

Palestine was conquered by British forces, Mavromatis resisted Palestine Electric Company's attempts of building a power station that would serve Jerusalem. Only in 1942, when his British-Jerusalem Electric Corporation failed to supply the demands of the city, did the Mandatory government ask the Palestine Electric Company to take over the responsibility for supplying electricity to Jerusalem.[6]

In October 1934 Rutenberg acted as mediator between

Zeev Jabotinsky, during a series of meetings in London intended to reconcile the two,[7][8][9][10] but the resulting London Agreements
were short-lived.

On 17 September 1939 Rutenberg was elected for the second time as the president of the Jewish National Council. That same year Rutenberg moved into his new mansion on the Carmel overlooking Haifa. However, suffering from throat cancer he moved to Jerusalem in July 1941 to be nearer to Hadassah Hospital.

Rutenberg died in Jerusalem on 3 January 1942 at age 62. He left his house for the education of youth. The current resident at Beyt Rutenberg (Rutenberg House) is the Rutenberg Institute.[11] A large modern power station near Ashkelon is named after him. Additionally, streets in Ramat Gan and Netanya are named in his honor.

References

  1. ^ "Gallery of the first power stations". Israel Electric Corporation. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  2. ^ Shamir, Ronen (2013) "Current Flow: The Electrification of Palestine". Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  3. Time magazine. 4 March 1929. Archived from the original
    on 1 October 2007. Retrieved 24 May 2007.
  4. ^ Avitzur, Shmuel. "The Power Plant on Two Rivers". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 12 May 2007.
  5. Time magazine. 4 April 1932. Archived from the original
    on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2007.
  6. ^ Naor, Mordechai (25 January 2004). "An electrifying story". Haaretz. Retrieved 12 May 2007.
  7. ^ "October 26, 1934 Agreement Signed in London Between Labor and Revisionist Movements". cojs.org. Center for Online Judaic Studies. 24 December 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  8. ^ "Jabotinsky and Ben-Gurion Meeting in London". israeled.org. Center for Israel Education. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  9. ^ "ZIONIST LEADERS SIGN PEACE PACT; Agreement Designed to End Riotous Outbreaks Among Various Jewish Groups". The New York Times. 28 October 1934. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  10. ^ "Pinḥas Rutenberg". jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  11. ^ Rutenberg Institute

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pinhas Rutenberg.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pinhas_Rutenberg&oldid=1209033862"