When we talk about events like a major wave of Jewish immigration to the land of Israel, it is easy to forget that it was people who made these events happen. They were people just like you and me, with a dream to change the world. The people I have described below are real people of the Second Aliyah, and will make the wave of immigration more personable. There are many more, but this is just a start of some of the movers and shakers of this time.
These are the people of the Second Aliyah:
Theodor Herzl
The first person of the people of the Second Aliyah is Theodor Herzl. Theodor Herzl was born on May 2, 1860 in Budapest to a family that encouraged the German- Jewish Enlightenment. In 1870, the family moved to Vienna. After completing his doctorate in 1884, Herzl became the Paris correspondent of the Vienna newspaper Neue Freie Presse.
Herzl met his future wife, Julie, in 1886, and the two married in 1889. But throughout their marriage, they were often in different countries because of his work. They had three children, Pauline, Hans, and Trude.
In 1894, the trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus brought Herzl to the conclusion that anti- Semitism could be solved only by the mass immigration of Jews to a land of their own. After analyzing his surroundings, published The Jewish State in 1896. Eight years later he published Atlnueland in 1902. It was his vision for a Jewish state.
His work excited the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe. The Jews of Western Europe needed more convincing, and from August 29- 31, 1897 he established the First Zionist Congress. He will hold more Zionist Congress meetings during which leaders created the Jewish National Fund, the movement’s newspaper Die Welt, and debated what language would be the official language of the Jewish State.
In the Sixth World Zionist Congress in 1906, Herzl proposed the British Uganda Program as a safe heaven for the Jewish communities facing danger before reaching the Land of Israel. It caused a huge uproar and some leaders even left the meeting!
During all of this work, Herzl found time to coin the phrase “If you will it, it is no dream.”
Theodor Herzl died in 1904 due to complications with his heart.
Akiva Arieh Wiess
Akiva Arieh Wiess was born in 1868 in Russia. He moved to Palestine in 1906, after hearing of his beloved leader, Herzl’s death. The same year he designed a plan to honor Herzl’s memory in another way- to establish the first modern, Hebrew city. And he honors Herzl in two ways:
- The main street of the city would be called Herzl Street.
- The name of the city would be named after Herzl’s book Altnueland- Tel Aviv.
He presented his plan with the hope that “Tel Aviv would become the gateway to the Middle East as New York City is the gateway to the United States.”
When Tel Aviv was established, Wiess moved to a house located on the corner of Ahad Ha’am and Herzl Streets. He served as the leader of the city until Meir Dizengoff took over as the first mayor of Tel Aviv.
While Tel Aviv has largely forgotten Wiess, he played an essential role in developing Israel’s second largest city.
Meir Dizengoff
Meir Dizengoff was born in 1861 in Ukraine. He met his wife, Zina in 1884 after serving in the Imperial Russian Army. While living in Odessa, he met many members of the Hovevei Zion Zionist group, and later joined them.
While studying engineering at the University of Paris, he met Edmond de Rothschild who sent him to Palestine to establish a glass factory.
In 1911, Dizengoff became the first mayor of Tel Aviv, and continued to serve in the position until his death in 1936. During his life, he dedicated a lot of work into developing the city into a true hub for the future country.
In 1932, he created the “Middle Eastern” committee set to organize the first fair of the city. Tel Aviv held an even larger fair in 1934. He established a Purim Carnival (which was the beginnings of the Independence Day Street Party in Tel Aviv today). He established schools, libraries, and more.
When Zina Dizengoff passed away in 1930, Meir moved upstairs and donated the first floor to become the first art museum of Tel Aviv. In 1936, Mayor Meir Dizengoff will publish a statement to Tel Aviv:
“My last request of the Tel Aviv residents. I have devoted a large portion of my life to this city, and now that I am about to bid you farewell, I ask you take care of my favorite child, the Tel Aviv Museum. Please take good care of it, one day it will become the pride and glory of the city.”
Shortly after Meir Dizengoff passed away.
Dr. Arthur Ruppin
Arthur Ruppin was born in 1876 in the German Empire. Despite his family’s poverty, and his working to support the family, he was able to complete studies in law and economics.
He joined the World Zionist Organization in 1905. In 1907, European Jews sent Ruppin to study the condition of the Jewish community in Palestine, and to investigate the possibilities for developing agriculture and industry. A year later, Ruppin came to live in the land and opened the Palestine Office of the Zionist Organization in Jaffa.
Arthur Ruppin believed in Practical Zionism, and worked to get a loan for Tel Aviv to buy the land it was built on. He was essential in buying land on Mount Carmel, Afula, Jerusalem, and the Jezreel Valley. He also helped created the kibbutz during a later aliyah.
Arthur Ruppin died in 1943, and is buried in Degania Aleph.
Menahem Sheinkin
One of the many people of the Second Aliyah was Menachem Sheinkin. Menahem Sheinkin was born in 1871 in Russia. He moved to Palestine in 1906 at the beginning of the Second Aliyah, after attending several Zionist Congress meetings. He was very much against the plan to use Uganda as a temporary safe haven for Jews in danger until coming to the Land of Israel.
Sheinkin was one of the first residents of Tel Aviv, coming from Haifa to live in the new city. It was he who suggested the name Tel Aviv, originated in Nahum Sokolov’s translation of Herzl’s book Altneuland. He was a very active participant in building Tel Aviv’s first school, the first school to be conducted entirely in English.
During WWI, the British exiled Jews from Tel Aviv, but four ears later, in 1919, Sheinkin came back and continued working to create a state of Israel.
Menachem Sheinkin died in a car accident in Chicago while on busisnes in 1925. He is buried in Tel Aviv’s Trempeldor Cemetery.
The Second Aliyah was an important time in the land. The people of the Second Aliyah were just as important. These are just some of the people that made it happen.
