Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair, the initial Zionist youth movement, was
founded in Eastern Europe on the eve of the First World War. Many Jewish
youth, affected by the process of modernization which had begun among Eastern
European Jewry, sought a means of maintaining their Jewish identity and
culture outside the stifling barriers of the shtetl and of Orthodox Jewish life. On the other hand, they were troubled by the crumbling of the
foundations of society around them and by the growing anti-Semitism which threatened their very existence. In its early stages the movement was
heavily influenced by the Scout Movement organized by Baden-Powell and it
embraced scouting as a basic principle to teach ghetto youth self-reliance,
outdoor life and a love and knowledge of nature. Another important influence
upon them was the Wanderfoegel movement in Germany, which emphasized youth's
independence and creativity.
Hashomer Hatzair forthwith adopted a Zionist ideology and
stressed the need for the Jewish people to normalize their lives by changing
their economic structure (as merchants) and to become workers and farmers, who
would settle in the Land of Israel and work the land as "chalutzim"
(pioneers). They were influenced, as well, by the burgeoning socialist
movement, and they dreamt of creating in their new homeland a society based on
social justice and equality.
The first members of the movement went to settle in
Palestine in 1919, immediately after the war. There they found not "a
land of milk and honey", but rather a barren, impoverished, undeveloped
country lacking all means to maintain them. "If you will it, it is no
legend" Theodore Herzl had said.
They had the will, and a movement behind them, so they found the way. No one
could build the land for them, therefore they had to do it on their own.
Individually it could not be done, so they banded together and formed
kibbutzim, collective settlements. The idea evolved naturally as a result of
the conditions they found in Palestine. A few kibbutzim were already in
existence when they arrived, particularly Degania, the first kibbutz, in the
Jordan Valley
In the spirit of the goals that the original founders had
set for themselves, the movement established schools, cultural facilities, a
publishing house and a daily newspaper, joint economic projects and
instruments for mutual help.
The years of the Holocaust brought catastrophe to the Jewish people, it also destroyed the core of the
Hashomer Hatzair movement in Europe, many of whose members fell in activities
against the German forces. Hashomer Hatzair was active in leading resistance
in the ghettoes, the forests and the concentration camps. In the Warsaw
ghetto, members of the movement were among the organizers of the Jewish
Fighting Organization, and a member of Hashomer Hatzair, Mordechai
Anilewicz, stood at its head. In Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia and
elsewhere in Nazi-occupied Europe, members of Hashomer Hatzair were to be
found in the front ranks of the Jewish and general resistance and in attempts
to rescue Jews.
As the war ended and the remnants of European Jewry were
freed from the death camps, members of Hashomer Hatzair were among the first
to organize the "illegal" flight of the survivors across the borders
of Europe and to take part in the illegal immigration to Palestine, whose
gates had been barred by the British. The leader of the refugees aboard the
famed illegal immigration ship "Exodus" was a member of Hashomer
Hatzair.
At the same time Hashomer Hatzair was active in the Haganah,
the underground army of the Jewish community in Palestine. Together with the
other kibbutz federations, its members formed the nucleus of the Palmach,
which served as the shock troops in the war for Israel's independence. When
the State of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948, six Arab armies attacked
the new nation and tried to crush it still-born. The battles were bitter. High
in the annals of the struggle stand kibbutzim of the Kibbutz Artzi which were
settled along the borders of the new country and were among the first to bear
the brunt of the attack. Kibbutz Yad Mordechai (named for the commander of the
Warsaw Ghetto revolt) and Kibbutz Negba, blocked the path of the Egyptian army
to Tel Aviv. These and other Hashomer Hatzair kibbutzim were in the forefront
of the effort of the entire Jewish community to win the final liberation of
Israel.
Source: The Kibbutz Artzi
Federation |