HOBHEBHÈ ŞIJJÖN (“friends of Zion”). — Followers of the Jewish pro-Palestinian movement that preceded the political Zionism of Teodoro Herzl by two decades. The aim of hibbath Şijjön was the colonization of Palestine.
The first beginnings date from 1840; in the journal Orient an anonymous writer advocated the return to Palestine, and in Vienna the future bibliographer Mosè Steinschneider presented Adolfo Crémieux with a plan for founding a colony in Palestine. The head of Orthodoxy, R. Zëbhi Kalischer, founded in 1860 an association similar in tendency to that founded by Steinschneider 20 years earlier. In 1862 Mosè Hess took up the subject in his book Roma e Gerusalemme, considering the cultural factor. In 1868 Charles Netter examined, on behalf of the Alliance Israelite Universelle, the possibility of establishing a Jewish school and agricultural colony in Palestine. In 1873 R. 'Aqibā' Jōšēph Schlesinger saw in the return to Palestine the only means of salvation for the dispersed Jews. Negotiations were begun with the Turkish government for the concession of lands in Palestine and Syria. In 1870 Netter founded the Miqwēh Jīšrā'ēl (“Hope of Israel”) agricultural school near Jaffa. The year 1881 brought the massacre of the Jews, the pogroms, in Russia. Jewish writers, including David Gordon, Smolenskin, Lilienblum, and Rabinowicz, raised the cry: “Toward Palestine!” Pro-Palestinian societies arose in various Russian and Romanian cities and in Vienna. University youth participated enthusiastically. Requests were submitted to the Turkish and English governments, but without success: the Alliance was considering directing its emigrants toward America. But the H. S. founded in Judea in 1882 the first colony, which they named Ri'šōn lē-Şijjön. They rebuilt the Petah ṛwōgh colony, which had been destroyed, and founded two new ones. In July 1882, 13 students of the “Bitu” arrived in Jaffa; the chief rabbi of France, Zādhōq Kahn, informed Rabbi Samuele Mohilewer that Baron Edmond de Rotschild was prepared to transplant a group of Jewish peasants from Russia to Palestine. Leo Pinskler published (1882) his Autoemancipation: the solution to the grave Jewish problem could only be national-territorial, in Palestine “insofar as possible.” The first conference attended by representatives of various European countries took place at Kattowitz (Nov. 1884), but failed to harmonize the various tendencies. Meanwhile, there were 9 colonies in Palestine.
At the conferences of Druskeniki, the pro-Palestinian movement adopted the name H. S., in place of “Remembrance of Moses” (Montefiore). In 1890 the journalist Zederbaum requested and obtained authorization from the Russian government to officially establish a society for the colonization of Palestine. Delegates from 26 Russian cities met in Odessa in 1890 and founded the “Society for Assisting Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Palestine and Syria.” Other colonies arose. Israel Belkind founded in Jaffa the first school in which instruction was given in Hebrew. Following the persecutions of 1891, further emigrants arrived in Palestine. But a Turkish decree prohibited immigration and the purchase of land in Palestine.
On 21 Dec. 1891 Leo Pinsker, the strongest representative of the H. S., died. In 1889 the writer 'Abad hā-ʿām (= 'Āšēr Ginsberg, 1856–1927) founded the association Bēnē Mōšēh (“Sons of Moses”) and proclaimed the spiritual and national rebirth of Judaism as a prerequisite for Palestinian colonization. The “poetic” H. S. rallied around Lilienblum. Meanwhile, the number of colonies rose to 19; in the cities, particularly in Jerusalem and Jaffa, the Jewish population continued to grow. In the villages, the first attempts were made to develop orange groves; in the cities, to develop industry.
The new leader of the H. S., Ussischkin, opposed the plan to colonize Uganda with Jewish emigrants. Under his direction (elected in 1906, he held the position until 1918, when he moved to Palestine), three new workers’ colonies arose. The H. S. were one and the same with Zionism.
In 1920 the Bolsheviks conquered Odessa and brought the H. S. committee to an end (v. SIONISMO).