Judah Alkalai, 1798-1878
Alkalai is credited with the idea of a national fund for Jewish land purchases. Adamant about the Jewish people returning to Eretz Yisrael, he advocated statehood in a booklet called “Shema Yisrael.” After the Damascus…
Chaim Nahman Bialik, 1873-1934
Bialik, recognized as Israel’s national poet, was born in Ukraine and moved to Palestine in 1924. After interviewing survivors of the 1903 Kishinev Pogrom, he wrote “Be-Ir ha-Haregah” (“In the City of Slaughter”), in which…
Theodor Herzl, 1860-1904
Born in Hungary, Herzl is viewed as the father of modern political Zionism. A journalist, novelist and playwright, he embraced Zionism after reporting on Alfred Dreyfus’ trial in France. His pamphlet “Der Judenstaat” (“The Jewish…
Moshe Leib Lilienblum, 1843-1910
A scholar and author born in Lithuania, Lilienblum embraced the Hibbat Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement in Russia after the pogroms of 1881 and served as secretary of an Odesa committee on Palestine settlement. His…
