Kupat Holim Clalit Is Established
At the urging of Berl Katznelson, a proposal is passed among Zionist leadership creating the Kupat Holim Clalit (General Sick Fund), a still present healthcare organization in Israel.
Poet Leah Goldberg Is Born
May 29, 1911 Poet Leah Goldberg is born in Königsberg, Prussia, now Kaliningrad, Russia. Raised mostly in Kovno, Lithuania, Goldberg begins writing poetry in Hebrew and Russian around age 12. She studies at the Universities…
First Kibbutz in Israel Is Established
Degania Alef is established as the first Kibbutz in Israel. The idea for a communally operated agricultural settlement in the land of Israel did not, however, originate with the founders of Degania Alef.
Tel Aviv Is Founded
Sixty-six families gathered on the sand dunes outside of Jaffa and selected lots for property in a new neighborhood called Ahuzat Bayit (“Homestead”) that became the first modern Jewish city, Tel Aviv.
British Make the Uganda Proposal
British Secretary of State for the Colonies Joseph Chamberlain and Theodor Herzl meet to discuss Jewish settlement. At this meeting, Chamberlain proposes that the Jewish state be created in Uganda.
Labor Politician Aharon Zisling Born
February 26, 1901 Aharon Zisling, one of Israel’s founding fathers, is born in the Russian Empire in Minsk, now the capital of Belarus. He immigrates to Palestine in 1914 during the Second Aliyah and emerges…
Politician Ya’akov Hazan Is Born
June 4, 1899 Ya’akov Hazan, a leader in socialist politics through Israel’s first four decades, is born in Brest Litovsk, Russia. He is a founder of the Hashomer Hatzair scouting movement in Poland in 1915…
Israel Museum Founder Eliyahu Dobkin Is Born
December 31, 1898 Eliyahu Dobkin, a signer of the Israeli Declaration of Independence and the founder of the Israel Museum, is born in Bobruysk, Belarus. Dobkin is raised in a religious Zionist family. His father,…
Gershom Scholem Is Born
Gershom Scholem, the pre-eminent scholar of Jewish mysticism, is born in Berlin. He immigrates to the Land of Israel in 1923.
Theodor Herzl Publishes “The Jewish State”
“Der Judenstaat” (The Jewish State), subtitled, “An Attempt at a Modern Solution to the Jewish Question,” by Theodor Herzl is first published in Vienna. 500 copies are originally printed and distributed.
Prime Minister Moshe Sharett Is Born
Moshe Sharett is born as Moshe Shertok in Kherson, Ukraine. Sharett’s parents were early Zionists, having been involved in the BILU movement in the early 1880’s.
Jaffa-Jerusalem Railway Line Debuts
The first passenger train arrives in Jerusalem from Jaffa as part of the first railroad project in the Ottoman-controlled Levant, the Jaffa-Jerusalem railway line.
Blackstone Memorial Is Presented to President Harrison
William E. Blackstone, a Methodist lay leader and real estate investor, petitions President Benjamin Harrison on behalf of creating “a home for these wandering millions of Israel.” The Blackstone Memorial was the name of the signed petition.
Avraham (Granot) Granovsky Is Born
Avraham (Granot) Granovsky, a signatory of the Israeli Declaration of Independence and Director-General of the Jewish National Fund, is born in Moldova.
First Tu B’Shevat Tree Planting in Land of Israel
The custom of planting trees in Israel on Tu B’Shevat begins when Ze’ev Yavetz, an educator in Zichron Ya’akov, takes his students to plant trees on the holiday.
Future Knesset Speaker Sprinzak Is Born
Yosef Sprinzak, who would serve as the first Speaker of the Knesset and twice as Interim President, is born in Moscow.
BILU Forms, Laying Groundwork for First Aliyah
The groundwork for the First Aliyah is laid with the formation of the BILU group at a meeting in the home of Israel Belkind in Kharkov, Ukraine.
Joseph Trumpeldor Is Born
Known for dying while defending the Jewish settlement of Tel Hai in 1920, Joseph Trumpeldor, a Zionist political activist and military hero, is born in Pyatigorsk, Russia.
Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky Is Born
Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky is born in Odessa, Ukraine. He is mostly known for his revisionist attitudes towards Zionism, which serve as the ideological foundation of Israel’s Likud political party.
Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz Is Born
November 7, 1878 Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz, who becomes one of the 20th century’s leading Talmud scholars, is born in Kosava, Russia, now part of Belarus, to the head of the local rabbinical court, Rabbi…
Petah Tikvah Is Founded
Petah Tikvah (Gateway of Hope), today Israel’s fifth largest city, is established by a group of religious Jews wishing to leave Jerusalem and establish an agricultural moshav.
Leo Motzkin Is Born
Raised in a traditional Jewish household, early Zionist activist Leo Motzkin is born in present-day Brovary, Ukraine.
Ottomans Introduce Title Deeds for Arab Lands
December 14, 1858 The Ottoman Empire enacts the Tapu Law, which introduces title deed registration in the empire’s Arab provinces. An effort to apply the principles of the Ottoman Land Code of 1858, the land…
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda Is Born
January 7, 1858 Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, considered the father of the modern Hebrew language, is born Eliezer Yitzchak Perelman in the Lithuanian village of Luzhky. Expected to become a rabbi, Ben-Yehuda becomes interested in the secular…
