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54-521: Jewish Communist Union (Poalei Zion) , Komverband was the name taken by the Left World Union of Poalei Zion in 1921. Komverband had members in Russia , Lithuania , Latvia , Austria , Italy , Poland and other countries. In 1922 Komverband shifted its headquarters from Vienna to Danzig , in preparation for a party conference. At that conference the communists were expelled from the organization, and

108-672: A Hebrew version of the Communist Manifesto with the added declaration: 'the party aspires to political independence of the Jewish People in this country." After much debate they agreed that there should be segregation of Jewish and Arab economies. It was also agreed that all Poale Zion business should be conducted in Hebrew, though this was not the larger group's policy which held that proceedings should be in Yiddish or Ladino depending on

162-847: A Communist party. In 1919, the Communists of Poale Zion Left split to form the Jewish Communist Party which ultimately joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , leading to a sharp loss of membership in Russia. While the Bund was forcibly disbanded in 1921, Poale Zion and Hechalutz were allowed to operate freely in the Soviet Union until 1928. In Poland, for a brief period following World War I, both factions of Poale Zion were reported as legal and functioning political parties. The Polish Left party

216-630: A Yiddish newspaper, the Yidisher Kempfer , and an English journal, Jewish Frontier , edited by Hayim Greenberg and Marie Syrkin . In Britain, Poale Zion rebranded itself in 2004 as the Jewish Labour Movement . Its original affiliate status with the Labour Party in 1920 was as The Jewish Socialist Labour Party (Poale Zion). Internationally, the Poale Zion right is represented within

270-516: A faction of the Left Poale Zion founded Mifleget Poalim Sozialistiim (Socialist Workers Party) which became the Jewish Communist Party in 1921, split in 1922 over the Zionist issues, with one faction taking the name Palestine Communist Party and the more anti-Zionist faction becoming the Communist Party of Palestine . The former retained its links to Poale Zion Left. These two factions reunited as

324-738: A more ambitious enterprise than Bar-Giora, being the first attempt to provide an organised defence for all the Jewish communities in Palestine. In 1914 the Ottoman Empire entered World War I . The Turkish authorities viewed the Jews of Palestine with a great degree of distrust, particularly Russian nationals like the Shochats; after the Shochats were found hiding weapons for the Hashomer organisation, they were deported to

378-669: A national basis in 1906. An Austrian group was formed in 1904, and published a newspaper, Yidisher Arbeyter . In November 1905 the Poale Zion (Workers of Zion) Party was founded in Palestine and a month later the Socialist Jewish Labour Party (Poale Zion) was formed in the United States and Canada . In March 1906, the Jewish Social Democratic Labour Party (Poale Zion) was founded in Russia under

432-767: A short time before Ben Gurion returned to his life as a pioneer. At that time he was less militant than Shochat and in particular he was not comfortable with reports of Shochat's gunmen expropriating funds in Jerusalem . The arrival of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi in April 1907 changed everything. A fresh conference was held in May at which Ben-Zvi and a Rostovian were elected as the Central Committee ; all of Ben Gurion's policies – Hebrew over Yiddish, segregation of Jewish and Arab economies – were overturned; Shochat and Ben-Zvi were selected as delegates to

486-558: A single Arab-Jewish proletariat. Using his followers Shochat engineered the election of Ben Gurion as chairman who created an impression by insisting that proceedings be held in Hebrew . For practical reasons discussions were in Russian and Yiddish . Shochat also rigged the secret ballot so that both he and Ben Gurion were members of the 10 man committee who were delegated the responsibility of writing their manifesto. The resulting Ramleh Program

540-690: A small group of Mapam dissidents left the party, again assuming the Ahdut HaAvoda – Poale Zion name. That party eventually became part of the Alignment in a 1965 merger with Mapai (and later included Rafi and Mapam). In 1992, the Alignment became the Israeli Labor Party . In 2024, the Israeli Labor Party and Meretz merged to form The Democrats . Several youth movements emerged out of Poale Zion:

594-527: A social democrat the year before his death ). Poale Zion Left, which supported the Bolshevik revolution , continued to be sympathetic to Marxism and Communism , and attended the second and third congresses of the Communist International in a consultative capacity. They lobbied for membership, but their attempts were unsuccessful, as the internationalist communist movement under Lenin and Trotsky

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648-626: Is worthless.” Poale Zion in Britain formally affiliated to the British Labour Party in 1920. It renamed itself the Jewish Labour Movement in 2004. Globally, Poale Zion, under the leadership of Shlomo Kaplansky , was involved in the 1921 formation of the centrist International Working Union of Socialist Parties , then between 1923 and 1930 the World Union of Poalei Zion (i.e., the PZ right) joined

702-591: The Yishuv , and took up the ideology of "conquest of labor" ( Kibbush Ha'avoda ) and " Hebrew labor " ( Avoda Ivrit ). The first formal congress of the "Jewish Social Democratic Workers' Party in the Land of Israel–Poalei Tziyon" was held in early 1907. Poale Zion set up employment offices, kitchens and health services for members. These eventually evolved into the institutions of Labor Zionism in Israel. During World War I , Poale Zion

756-759: The Anatolian city of Bursa , in Turkey. While their first-born son, Gideon ("Geda"), had been born in Palestine during their first years of marriage, their daughter Anna was born in Anatolia in 1916. The Shochat family returned to Palestine around Passover , 1919, after attending the Poalei Tziyon convention in Stockholm . They both joined the Ahdut HaAvoda , a workers' party led by David Ben-Gurion . At first Israel Shochat worked

810-575: The Balfour Declaration by three months. Poale Zion was torn between left-wing and right-wing factions in 1919–1920; the organization formally split at the Poale Zion fifth world congress in Vienna in 1920, following a similar division that occurred in the Second International . The right wing was less Marxist and more nationalist, and favoured a more moderate socialist program and supported

864-564: The Circassian villages, with residents combining army training and farming. In May 1908 he married Manya Wilbushewitch and in September they led his group, now 20 strong, to Sejera where they took over the running of the training farm. Their first action was the engineering of the sacking of the Circassian night watchman. This led to several months of night time gunfire aimed at the farm and Moshav . Bar Giora organised night-time security and

918-533: The Circassians living in Palestine, as an example of how a small minority could preserve its identity and pride in an often hostile environment. The key for Shochat was that they cultivated their land and protected it with their own hands. Shochat was a natural conspirator and by 1906 he had formed an underground group with about 25 followers mostly based in Lower Galilee . He used to inspect new arrivals coming off

972-499: The First Jewish–Roman War . Manya Wilbuszewicz , the leader and founding member of the collective at Sejera , convinced Shochat to join the agricultural settlement there. He accepted, becoming the second leader of the community which he used as a base for training Jewish guards. In May 1908, Israel and Manya got married. The next year, Israel and Manya Shochat were among the leading founders of Hashomer (lit. The Watchman ),

1026-563: The Histadrut as reformist and non-socialist. Aside from differing attitudes towards Zionism and Stalinism , the two wings of Poale Zion parted ways over Yiddish and Yiddish culture. The Left was more supportive of the latter, similar to the members of the Jewish Bund , while the Right bloc identified strongly with the emerging modern Hebrew movement in the early 20th century. In Palestine ,

1080-542: The International Working Union of Socialist Parties to continue the work of the Second International, essentially becoming a social democratic party. The left-wing faction did not consider the Second International radical enough, and some accused its members of betraying Borochov's revolutionary principles (although Borochov had begun to modify his ideology as early as 1914, and publicly identified as

1134-749: The Labour and Socialist International (as its Palestine section). As of 1928, it claimed to have 22,500 members in branches around the world; 5,000 in Poland and the United States, 4,000 in Palestine, 3,000 in Russia, 1,000 in Lithuania, Romania, Argentina and the United Kingdom, 500 in Latvia and another 1,000 scattered across countries such as Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, France and Brazil. The general secretary of

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1188-681: The Land of Israel , according to Poale Zion, and would then take part in the class struggle . These views were set out in Borochov's Our Platform , published in 1906. Poale Zion parties and organisations were started across the Jewish diaspora in the early 20th century. A branch of Poale Zion came into existence in New York City in 1903. Branches were formed in London and Leeds in 1903/04 and 1905 respectively and on

1242-626: The Palestine Communist Party in 1923 and become an official section of the Communist International . Another faction of Poale Zion Left, aligned with the kibbutz movement Hashomer Hatzair , founded in Europe in 1919, became the Mapam party. Poale Zion Right, under Ben Gurion's leadership, formed Ahdut HaAvoda in March 1919. In January 1930 it merged with another party to become Mapai , predecessor of

1296-663: The Russian Empire (present-day Belarus , a few km west of Ruzhany ). As a child, he had tutors for Hebrew and Russian . He was a founder member of Poale Zion in Grodno and set up a Jewish self-defence league in 1903 after the Kishinev pogrom . He went to Germany to study agronomy but left his studies after only three months and left for Palestine . In 1904 Israel Shochat and his brother, Eliezer Shochat, immigrated to Ottoman Syria (later Palestine ). They worked as field hands in

1350-521: The Russian Empire at about the turn of the 20th century after the Bund rejected Zionism in 1901. The key features of the ideology of early Poale Zion were acceptance of the Marxist view of history with the addition of the role of nationalism , which theorist Ber Borochov , a leader of Poale Zion, believed could not be ignored as a factor in historical development. A Jewish proletariat would come into being in

1404-691: The World Zionist Congress held that year in The Hague . On their return they established Bar-Giora – a secret paramilitary organisation committed to armed struggle . The initial group of nine met on 27 September 1907 in Ben Zvi's room in Jaffa. They swore themselves to secrecy – on pain of death – and pledged absolute allegiance to their leader Israel Shochat. Their motto was " Judea fell in blood and fire, Judea shall rise again in blood and fire". Shochat's vision

1458-880: The World Zionist Organization by the World Labour Zionist Movement ; the group "to the left" of the WLZM within the WZO is Mapam's successor, the World Union of Meretz . Meretz succeeded Mapam as a member of the Socialist International and, since 2013, is also a member of the Progressive Alliance . Israel Shochat Israel Shochat was born in 1886 in Lyskovo, in the Grodno Governorate of

1512-464: The 1930s. The Poale Zion Left merged with the kibbutz-based Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party of Palestine and the urban-based Socialist League of Palestine to form Mapam in 1948, which in the 1990s merged with two smaller parties, Ratz and Shinui , to form Meretz . In 1946, a split in Mapai led to the creation of another small party, Ahdut HaAvoda – Poale Zion , which united with Mapam in 1948. In 1954,

1566-429: The Jewish farmers to let them help with guarding the fields. It was a modest start. Israel represented Poalei Zion in the Zionist Congress of 1907, which took place in The Hague in the Netherlands . He was his party's first representative from Palestine. He was unable to present his idea to the assembly and in a private conversation, Menachem Ussishkin told Israel that he was much too young to succeed in achieving

1620-401: The Left Poalei Zion retook its former shape. Section of Komverband included: This communist party –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Poalei Zion Poale Zion (also spelled Poalei Tziyon or Poaley Syjon , meaning "Workers of Zion") was a movement of Marxist – Zionist Jewish workers founded in various cities of Poland , Europe and

1674-457: The Marxist Hashomer Hatzair (the largest, with 70,000 members on the eve of the Holocaust), the socialist Habonim Dror , the Left Poale Zion's Yugent , and Zeirei Zion. In North America, Poale Zion founded the HeHalutz movement, the Farband and Habonim Dror , and later the Labor Zionist Organization of America, which merged with other groups into the Labor Zionist Alliance, which rebranded itself in 2007 as Ameinu . US Poale Zion published

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1728-424: The United States on mission to collect money for the Histadrut and, rather on her own initiative, for the Haganah. Due to political opposition within the Jewish community, she only managed to raise several thousand dollars, which she sent to Israel Shochat who was waiting in Vienna , where he oversaw the purchase and shipment of weapons to the now British-administered Palestine . In the years 1921–26, Israel Shochat

1782-685: The World Union of Poalei Zion at the time was Berl Locker . The World Union had a women's wing, the Women's Organization for the Pioneer Women in Palestine. In 1932, Poale Zion's world federation merged with Hitahdut Olamit , the World Union of Hapoel Hatzair and Zeirei Zion , to create Ihud Olami , the World Union of Zionists–Socialists. During this period several well-known Zionist leaders and politicians were active in Poale Zion, including Ben-Gurion, Ben-Zvi, kibbutz movement leader Yitzhak Tabenkin , Jewish Agency Executive member Shlomo Kaplansky, and future Israeli politicians Moshe Sharett and Dov Hoz . The Holocaust-era Jewish resistance group ŻOB

1836-423: The arming of the farm workers. The following summer at a secret meeting at Kfar Tavor Bar Giora reinvented itself as Hashomer with the prime objective of providing security for, as well as establishing, remote colonies. Shochat remained absolute leader. Hashomer never had more than a hundred members. Its launch coincided with the collapse of the Second Aliyah with more Jews leaving than arriving. Convinced that

1890-428: The boats at Jaffa looking for new recruits. It was there he spotted 20-year-old David Ben Gurion who he invited to attend the founding conference of the local branch of Poale Zion – "Jewish Social-Democratic Workers' Party in the Land of Israel" – in October 1906. Also attending the conference was the only other Marxist group based in Jaffa, the Rostovians, a group of 30 young men from Rostov dedicated to creating

1944-434: The community. Hebrew was seen as the language of the bourgeoisie . At the time there were 550 active pioneers, Jews working on the land, in the country. In 1910-1911, it was decided that the organisation's journal would be published in Hebrew instead of Yiddish; it was named Achdut (he: אַחְדוּת achdut ), meaning unity. In Ottoman Palestine, Poale Zion founded the Hashomer guard organization that guarded settlements of

1998-560: The entire Warsaw leadership were amongst the 120 delegates arrested attending the Poale Zion conference in Poltava . Three months later eighteen gunmen raided Warsaw railway station, stealing cash and leaving "a receipt in the name of Warsaw's Poale Zion". A World Union of Poale Zion was formed. The first World Congress took place in August 1907 in The Hague . Its second congress in 1909 in Kraków emphasised practical socialist projects in Palestine, further congresses followed in Vienna (1911 and 1920) and Stockholm (1919). A conference in

2052-463: The fields and orchards of Petah Tikva . He moved to Rishon LeZion to work in the winery. He was greatly influenced by Michael Halperin, a Jewish visionary who wanted to create a tribe of Jewish Bedouin and a Hebrew army. While at Rishon LeZion he met Alexander Zaïd and shared with him his radical socialist ideas. Zaid received them enthusiastically and declared "I'm with you, for life or death, let's start as of now!" In Rishon LeZion, he suffered

2106-415: The first bout of malaria , which was to plague him for the remainder of his life. Israel Shochat moved to Jerusalem to persuade the yeshivot leaders to join the efforts to create a national workforce. His attempts failed. To support himself, he shined shoes at Jaffa Gate . As a result of asthma , he was forced to give up manual labour and worked as Israel Belkind 's assistant. He became interested in

2160-547: The future road to an independent Jewish state lay through the Young Turk revolution, and what he understood to be the promise of autonomous community status, Israel and Manya moved to Istanbul where Shochat enrolled in the university to study law. During the 1913 Balkan War he approached the Ottoman leadership offering to raise a Jewish cavalry unit, claiming to already have fifty volunteers. The war ended before his plans could be acted on. Along with Israel Giladi , Alexander Zaid and Mendel Portugali , he convinced some of

2214-417: The goal of a national defence. Yitzhak Ben-Zvi , a representative from Ukraine , was receptive and they travelled back to Palestine together, working along the way. In 1907, Israel Shochat was one of the 10 people who, in Yitzhak Ben-Zvi's Jaffa apartment, founded Bar-Giora , a clandestine organisation which sought to create an armed Jewish force. It took its name from one of the leading Jewish rebels of

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2268-444: The land in Kfar Giladi , but soon became involved in founding the famous Work Battalion and in organizing the defence of the Galilee . In 1920 the Ahdut HaAvoda decided to replace the existing Hashomer militias with a new organisation, the Haganah , established as the paramilitary arm of the Histadrut . During the riots of 1921 , Israel Shochat took an active part in defending Tel Aviv and Jaffa. The same year his wife left for

2322-512: The leadership of Ber Borochov and Itzhak Ben-Zvi . , and other groups were soon formed elsewhere in Europe. A French group was formed, under the leadership of Marc Jarblum , which was influential on the SFIO and its leader Leon Blum . By 1907, the party had 25,000 members in Russia. With the threat of pogroms , and meeting clandestinely, the Warsaw Poale Zion formed a commando unit (bojówka) with around sixty guns. They were used to "expropriate" funds from well-to-do citizens. In March 1906

2376-400: The left faction was led by Michael Kohn-Eber , who joined the Austrian Communist Party in 1938. The right faction also remained active until 1938. The first Poale Zion group in America was established in 1903. In 1915 it was estimated they had fewer than 3,000 members. After the First World War, the American party was led by veteran socialist Zionist thinker Nachman Syrkin . In America,

2430-486: The major leaders of Poale Zion since their immigration in 1906 and 1907 had been David Ben-Gurion , who joined a local Poalei Tziyon group in 1904 whilst living in Warsaw , and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi , a close friend of Borochov and an early member of the Poltava group. After the split the two Benim ("the Bens") continued to control and direct Poale Zion Right in Palestine. The party in Palestine split into right and left wings at its February 1919 conference. In October 1919,

2484-415: The modern Democrats . In Russia, the Poale Zion Left participated in the Bolshevik Revolution and organized a brigade of Poale Zion activists nicknamed the "Borochov Brigade" to fight in the Red Army . The party remained legal until 1928 when it was liquidated by the NKVD . Most other Zionist organizations had been closed down in 1919, but Poale Zion Left remained untouched because it was recognized as

2538-437: The name of the Jewish Social-Democratic Workers' Party in the Land of Israel was held in Jaffa between 4–6 October 1906. It was organised by Israel Shochat who over the previous two years had organised an underground group of around 25 Poale Zion followers. About 60 people attended the conference and it was chaired by newly arrived David Ben Gurion . As a result the following January they produced The Ramleh Program ,

2592-402: The right faction was dominant, and initiated the National Labor Committee for Palestine , raising money for the Histadrut. Manya Shochat , one of the Poale Zion leaders in Palestine, toured the United States in 1920. Writing to Rachel Ben Zvi she estimated there were “maybe” 2,000 members of Poale Zion in the whole country, with 180 of them in New York. She comments “The entire movement here

2646-505: Was accepted by a second 15 delegate meeting held the following January. The program, in Hebrew, bore many similarities to the Communist Manifesto but included: "the party aspires to political independence of the Jewish People in this country." It also dictated that all party activities should be conducted in Hebrew and that there should be segregation of the Jewish and Arab economies. i.e. Jewish enterprises should not employ Arabs. Shochat and Ben Gurion continued to work closely together for

2700-540: Was formed from a coalition including Hashomer Hatzair , Dror , Bnei Akiva , the Jewish Bund , various Jewish Communist groups, and both factions of Poale Zion. Poale Zion was also active in the Anti-Fascist Bloc . Several notable Jewish resistance fighters during the Holocaust , particularly those involved in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising , were members of Poale Zion. They include: After World War I, David Ben-Gurion integrated most of Poale Zion Right in Palestine into his Ahdut HaAvoda party, which became Mapai by

2754-415: Was instrumental in recruiting members to the Jewish Legion . Poale Zion was active in Britain during the war, under the leadership of J. Pomeranz and Morris Meyer , and influential on the British labour movement , including on the drafting (by Sidney Webb and Arthur Henderson ) of the Labour Party 's War Aims Memorandum, recognising the ' right of return ' of Jews to Palestine, a document which preceded

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2808-451: Was opposed to Zionist nationalism. The Comintern advised individual members of Left Poale Zion to join their national Communist parties as individuals; at their 1922 Danzig conference, these terms were rejected by the party. The Comintern declared it an enemy of the workers' movement. Poale Zion Left opposed the decision by Poale Zion to rejoin the World Zionist Organization , viewing it as essentially bourgeois in character, and viewed

2862-474: Was the largest Left Poale Zion party in the world. It worked closely with the Bund in developing Yiddish schools in Poland and supporting secular Yiddish culture, although they had political differences (e.g., the Bund was more supportive of the Polish Socialist Party than LPZ). As part of the large-scale ban on Jewish political parties in post- World War II Poland by the Communist leadership, both Poale Zion groups were disbanded in February 1950. In Austria ,

2916-402: Was to create Hebrew military force which could lead an armed uprising and create a Jewish state. The inner circle of nine were to create subordinate organisations which could be manipulated towards the ultimate goal. Two areas were to be developed: security guards for the existing settlements and shepherds to conduct detailed surveys of the land. They would set up new border settlements modelled on

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