Practical Zionism emphasized
practical means of attaining Zionist goals, such as aliyah (immigration), rural
settlement and educational institutions, despite
inadequate political conditions. This approach
originated in the Hibbat
Zion movement in the 1880s, well before Political
Zionism. After Theodor
Herzl's death (1904), as hopes of obtaining
a charter in Palestine were dashed, and after
the Uganda
Program controversy (1905), Practical
Zionism, calling for the intensification of
rural settlement in Palestine, gained strength.
The champions of this doctrine were the members
of the
Second Aliyah, who settled in Palestine
at this time. They founded rural settlements,
some along cooperative principles; built modern
towns; and established the first industrial
enterprises. The 1907 decision to establish
the Palestine office of the Zionist movement
in Jaffa,
headed by Dr.
Arthur Ruppin, further reinforced this
approach.