Leon (Yehuda Leib) Pinsker (1821-1891)
Leon (Yehuda Leib) Pinsker (1821-1891)
Leon (Yehuda Leib) Pinsker, Zionist pioneer
His Life
Born in Poland, Pinsker studied at his father's school in
Odessa. One of the first Jews to attend Odessa University, he
studied law, but realized that, as a Jew, he had little chance of
becoming a lawyer, so he studied medicine at the University of
Moscow, returning to Odessa to practice in 1849.
Pinsker was one of the founders of a Russian-language weekly
which encouraged Jews to speak Russian and was later a contributor
to a weekly which urged Jews to assimilate. When pogroms started in
Odessa in 1871, enlightened Jews were distraught. Assimilation
activities ceased and Pinsker returned to medicine, becoming
prominent in public life. Within a few years, these activities were
renewed, but they were brought to a sudden halt in 1881, when
another wave of pogroms began in southern Russia.
Government-sponsored anti-Semitism caused Pinsker to make a
complete about face. He no longer viewed the Enlightenment and
Haskalah movement as the correct course for Russian Jews and no
longer believed that humanism would defeat hatred of the Jews.
Pinsker came to agree, instead, with Moses Lilienblum, a
leader of the Hibbat Zion movement, that anti-Semitism was rooted in
the fact that Jews were foreigners, and that they should emigrate to
Eretz Yisrael - the Land of Israel.
A trip to Europe in 1882 enabled Pinsker to visit various
capitals to discuss the need for Russian Jewish emigration and led
to his book, "Autoemancipation" (1882), an analysis of the roots of
anti-Semitism and a call for the establishment of a Jewish home,
either in Palestine or elsewhere. The book elicited strong responses
among Jews. Pinsker eventually became chairman of the Hovevei Zion
and remained in charge of the organization, despite factional
infighting, with the backing of Baron Edmond de Rothschild.
Pessimism and official opposition to Jewish immigration
marked his final days. Pinsker died in 1891 and in 1934 his remains
were moved to Mount Scopus in Jerusalem.
His Accomplishments
Official anti-Semitism and pogroms led Pinsker, a champion
of assimilation and the Enlightenment, to become a Zionist. At
first, after the first pogrom in 1871, he waited several years
before returning to his original belief, but the second pogrom in
1881, led to a complete change of heart.
Already influenced by Lilienblum and the Hibbat Zion
movement, a trip to Europe in 1882 enabled him to sound out leaders
in Vienna, Berlin, Paris and London. The concept of channeling
Russian Jewish emigration to one country was rebuffed in Vienna and
Paris, where Jewish leaders favored emigration to the U.S. rather
than a Jewish homeland. In London, a Jewish leader who was also a
member of parliament agreed with Pinsker that the Jewish question
had to receive international recognition.
His book, "Autoemancipation", was published in the aftermath
of this trip. Although anonymous, the author's feelings were
unmistakable. He argued that Jews could not assimilate in any
country, and should therefore establish a homeland where they could
live just like other nations. He strongly disagreed with both Jews
in the West who favored a Jewish Diaspora, and with the religious
approach advocating suffering in silence until the arrival of the
Messiah.
He was willing to leave the final decision on the location
of a homeland to a national congress, anticipating that the
worldwide process of national awakening would benefit the Jewish
people. He hoped Western Jewry would help their fellow Jews in
founding a homeland.
Hovevei Zion members were enthusiastic about the book. They
urged Pinsker not to wait for a decision by Western Jewry, but to
proceed immediately to work for a home in Eretz Yisrael. Discussions
with movement leaders such as Hermann Schapira, Lilienblum and Max
Mandelstamm, helped convince him. He was instrumental in the
original founding committee of the local Hibbat Zion movement in
Odessa, a group which maintained contacts with other branches and
held a founding convention in Kattowitz in November 1884, at which
Pinsker was the chairman. There, he stressed the need for Jews to
return to working the land, but did not discuss rebirth or
independence for fear of alienating Western Jews.
Attempts to establish the Hovevei Zion outside of Russia
failed, and Odessa remained the movement's center. Pinsker asked
Lilienblum to take charge of the office and its limited activities.
Failing health caused him to resign, but disagreements between
religious factions and the maskilim led to the decision for Pinsker
to remain in charge. Nevertheless, orthodox circles continued to
cause him problems, and in 1889 he did not attend the movement's
convention in Vilna, lest he once again be persuaded not to resign.
At the convention, Avraham Gruenberg, Shmuel Mohilever and Shmuel
Fuenn were chosen to lead the movement which remained centered on
Odessa.
In 1890, the Hovevei Zion was legalized in Odessa and
revived in Russia as Jews began to settle in Eretz Yisrael.
Conditions were deteriorating for Jews in Russia, and they were
expelled from Moscow in 1891. Pinsker began to hope that his vision
would be realized, but the Ottoman authorities prohibited
immigration. A movement crisis ensued and Pinsker began to doubt
whether Eretz Yisrael would ever become the solution for Jews in
distress.
His pessimism led him to investigate other possibilities,
such as settling Jews in Argentina. Just before his death, he read
Lilienblum an article he had just completed which stated that he
feared Eretz Yisrael would never be more than the spiritual center of
the Jewish people. The article was never published.
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Updated: 02 12 ,1998