Manya Shochat
Encyclopedia
Manya Shochat née Wilbushewich / Wilbuszewicz, (1880* – 1961) was Russian Jewish politician and the "mother" of the collective settlement in Palestine
, the forerunner of the kibbutz
movement.
(today Belarus
) to middle-class Russian Jewish parents, and grew up on the family estate of "Łosośna". One brother, Isaac, studied agriculture in Russia. He was expelled for slapping a professor who, in the course of a lecture, stated that the zhids (a derogatory term for Jews) were sucking the blood of the farmers in Ukraine. In late 1882
, he left for Palestine and joined the Bilu
movement. His letters home were a powerful influence on young Manya. Another brother, the engineer Gedaliah, went there in 1892, and helped fund his younger siblings' education. As a young adult, she went to work in her brother's factory in Minsk
to learn about working class conditions. She was imprisoned because of her contacts with Bund revolutionaries in 1899. There she was indoctrinated by Sergey Zubatov
, the head of the Tsarist Secret Police in Moscow. Zubatov conceived a plan that fit with Shochat's ideological notions, through which workers would form "tame" organizations that would work for reform rather than for overthrow of the government. She was persuaded that this would also help achieve rights for Jews. She founded the Jewish Independent Labor Party. The party was successful in leading strikes because the secret police supported it, but was loathed by the Bund and other Jewish socialist
groups. The party collapsed in 1903 following the Kishinev pogrom
. Experiencing, as she put it, 'severe emotional distress' following the loss and failure of her political organization and path, she accepted an invitation from her brother Nachum, who was the founder of the Shemen soap factory, to accompany him on a research expedition to some of the wilder places of Palestine. She arrived on January 2, 1904.
"I couldn't see what direction I should take in my life. I agreed to join my brother's expedition, because, in fact, I was indifferent to everything. For me it was just another adventure."
Manya fell in love with the beauty of the land and was especially touched by the plight of the Jewish settlement in the Hauran
. "The Hauran remained without a redeemer - and my soul cleaved unto this place."
The Baron Rothschild
had bought land in the area, but the Ottoman
government stipulated that no Jews be allowed to settle there. A small group which had disregard the decision was evicted, so the Baron resorted to leasing out the plots of land to Arab Fellahin. Manya decided to visit all of the Baron's colonies and see for herself why they were in financial straits.
She became acquainted with and greatly impressed by Yehoshua and Olga Hankin
. Her decision to stay was due in a large part to their influence.
. She understood that the model of plantation settlement, favored by the Baron Rothschild, where Jewish owners employed Arab workers and were subject to economic overseers, could never be the basis for Jewish national life. It led to financial difficulties and disaffection. She concluded that only collective agricultural settlement could produce Jewish workers and farmers who would be the basis for building a Jewish homeland. Her first priority was finding a solution for the problem in Hauran.
Manya left for Paris, in order to research the feasibility of her ideas and then to convince the Baron to back them. In 1905, a fresh wave of pogrom
s swept the Russian Empire
. Meir Cohen, an old friend from Minsk
, came to Paris seeking the aid of the Jewish community to buy arms so they could defend themselves. Manya laid aside the Hauran project, and put her efforts towards fundraising. She convinced Rothschild to donate 50000 gold francs to that end.
Guns and ammunition were bought in Liege and smuggled into Russia. In order to deliver the final consignment, Manya disguised herself as a young rabbanit from Frankfurt
, bringing eight cases of scriptures, a gift for the yeshivot of Ukraine. In Odessa
, an undercover police agent gained access to her apartment and discovered where the guns were. Manya, who had a silenced pistol, shot him before he could get out and report his findings. The guns were successfully delivered to the Jewish underground. Not one was lost.
She returned to Palestine in 1906 to further pursue her Hauran plan. Towards the end of the year, she travelled to the United States
to raise funds for that and for arms for Russian Jews. The idea of collective settlements in general, and the Hauran scheme in particular, received no support. She realised that the only way to convince people that it could work was by putting it into practice, so she returned to Palestine in 1907.
Manya shared her idea with enthusiastic members of "Poalei Tzion" and "Hapoel Hatzair". Hankin convinced Eliahu Krauzeh, the director of the Sejera
farm, to give them stewardship over it for a year. It had been one of the least successful farming plots around. Krauzeh was reluctant, because the group's radicalism could cost him his job.
18 young men and women, mainly friends of Israel Shochat, established there the land’s first ideologically based cooperative which inspired later settlement at Degania
. The project succeeded and lent credence to the idea of collectives. In 1908, with Israel Shochat
, she helped found the HaShomer
, a guard organization, which evolved into the basis of Jewish self-defense. Its goal was to put the responsibility of guarding settlements in Jewish hands.
She married Israel Shochat and had two children with him. In World War I
, the Turks deported the Shochats and others who were Russian nationals to Bursa
, in Turkey. They returned around Passover
, 1919, after attending the Poalei Tziyon
convention in Stockholm
.
In 1921 she was in Tel-Aviv when riots broke out among the Arabs, who then attacked Jewish settlements. Along with other Hashomer members, she took part in the defence of the city. At great risk, she would walk around, disguised as a Red Cross nurse, to keep an eye out on developments. Her experience in Russia came in handy as they attempted to smuggle in grenades for the defenders of Petah-Tikva. She hid them among baskets of vegetables and eggs. The car they were in got mired just outside of the town. A patrol of Indian cavalry approached. Their role was to search all travellers for arms. With great presence of mind, Manya averted disaster. She ran up to the patrol, begging them to help rescue the car from the mud. While they were pulling it out, she watched the baskets, saying that she didn't want the eggs to break. The cavalry then even provided an escort until they got into town.
After the riots were over, she travelled the United States to raise funds for the defence efforts. Due to a series of misunderstandings between her and Pinhas Rutenberg
, the transfer of funds was frozen and the two didn't speak for years.
She was active in the Gdud HaAvoda
and clandestine immigration, as well as arms-smuggling. In 1930, Manya Shochat was among the founders of the League for Arab-Jewish Friendship. In 1948 she joined the Mapam
party.
(RAF) during World War II and later became one of the founding pilots of the Israeli Air Force
, rising to the rank of Colonel
. He committed suicide in 1967. In 1971, his daughter Alona married Arik Einstein
, a famous Israeli performer. They had 2 daughters together. They later divorced, the daughters remaining with their mother. They later became Orthodox Jews, and the daughters married Uri Zohar
's sons. Zohar was a good friend of Einstein and became one of the leading figures in the Orthodox community.
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, the forerunner of the kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
movement.
Russia and early days in Palestine
Manya was born in Russian PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(today Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
) to middle-class Russian Jewish parents, and grew up on the family estate of "Łosośna". One brother, Isaac, studied agriculture in Russia. He was expelled for slapping a professor who, in the course of a lecture, stated that the zhids (a derogatory term for Jews) were sucking the blood of the farmers in Ukraine. In late 1882
First Aliyah
The First Aliyah was the first modern widespread wave of Zionist aliyah. Jews who migrated to Palestine in this wave came mostly from Eastern Europe and from Yemen. This wave of aliyah began in 1881–82 and lasted until 1903. An estimated 25,000–35,000 Jews immigrated to Ottoman Syria during the...
, he left for Palestine and joined the Bilu
Bilu
Bilu was a movement whose goal was the agricultural settlement of the Land of Israel. "Bilu" is an acronym based on a verse from the Book of Isaiah "בית יעקב לכו ונלכה" Beit Ya'akov Lekhu Venelkha...
movement. His letters home were a powerful influence on young Manya. Another brother, the engineer Gedaliah, went there in 1892, and helped fund his younger siblings' education. As a young adult, she went to work in her brother's factory in Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
to learn about working class conditions. She was imprisoned because of her contacts with Bund revolutionaries in 1899. There she was indoctrinated by Sergey Zubatov
Sergei Vasilyevich Zubatov
Sergei Vasilyevich Zubatov was a famous Russian police administrator. Despite rumors, he was never a Colonel in the Special Corps of Gendarmes...
, the head of the Tsarist Secret Police in Moscow. Zubatov conceived a plan that fit with Shochat's ideological notions, through which workers would form "tame" organizations that would work for reform rather than for overthrow of the government. She was persuaded that this would also help achieve rights for Jews. She founded the Jewish Independent Labor Party. The party was successful in leading strikes because the secret police supported it, but was loathed by the Bund and other Jewish socialist
Jewish left
The term "Jewish left" describes Jews who identify with or support left wing, occasionally liberal causes, consciously as Jews, either as individuals or through organizations. There is no one organization or movement which constitutes the "Jewish left," however...
groups. The party collapsed in 1903 following the Kishinev pogrom
Kishinev pogrom
The Kishinev pogrom was an anti-Jewish riot that took place in Chişinău, then the capital of the Bessarabia province of the Russian Empire on April 6-7, 1903.-First pogrom:...
. Experiencing, as she put it, 'severe emotional distress' following the loss and failure of her political organization and path, she accepted an invitation from her brother Nachum, who was the founder of the Shemen soap factory, to accompany him on a research expedition to some of the wilder places of Palestine. She arrived on January 2, 1904.
"I couldn't see what direction I should take in my life. I agreed to join my brother's expedition, because, in fact, I was indifferent to everything. For me it was just another adventure."
Manya fell in love with the beauty of the land and was especially touched by the plight of the Jewish settlement in the Hauran
Hauran
Hauran, , also spelled Hawran or Houran, is a volcanic plateau, a geographic area and a people located in southwestern Syria and extending into the northwestern corner of Jordan. It gets its name from the Aramaic Hawran, meaning "cave land." In geographic and geomorphic terms, its boundaries...
. "The Hauran remained without a redeemer - and my soul cleaved unto this place."
The Baron Rothschild
Edmond James de Rothschild
Baron Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild was a French member of the Rothschild banking family. A strong supporter of Zionism, his generous donations lent significant support to the movement during its early years, which helped lead to the establishment of the State of Israel.- Early years :A...
had bought land in the area, but the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
government stipulated that no Jews be allowed to settle there. A small group which had disregard the decision was evicted, so the Baron resorted to leasing out the plots of land to Arab Fellahin. Manya decided to visit all of the Baron's colonies and see for herself why they were in financial straits.
She became acquainted with and greatly impressed by Yehoshua and Olga Hankin
Yehoshua Hankin
Yehoshua Hankin was a Zionist activist who was responsible for most of the major land purchases of the World Zionist Organization in Ottoman Palestine....
. Her decision to stay was due in a large part to their influence.
In Palestine
As a result of her first visit, Manya reached a conclusion which anticipated that of Arthur RuppinArthur Ruppin
Arthur Ruppin was a Zionist thinker and leader. He was also one of the founders of the city of Tel Aviv, and a pioneering sociologist credited as being "The Father Of Jewish Sociology", directing Berlin's Bureau for Jewish Statistics and Demography from 1902 to 1907...
. She understood that the model of plantation settlement, favored by the Baron Rothschild, where Jewish owners employed Arab workers and were subject to economic overseers, could never be the basis for Jewish national life. It led to financial difficulties and disaffection. She concluded that only collective agricultural settlement could produce Jewish workers and farmers who would be the basis for building a Jewish homeland. Her first priority was finding a solution for the problem in Hauran.
Manya left for Paris, in order to research the feasibility of her ideas and then to convince the Baron to back them. In 1905, a fresh wave of pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
s swept the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Meir Cohen, an old friend from Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
, came to Paris seeking the aid of the Jewish community to buy arms so they could defend themselves. Manya laid aside the Hauran project, and put her efforts towards fundraising. She convinced Rothschild to donate 50000 gold francs to that end.
Guns and ammunition were bought in Liege and smuggled into Russia. In order to deliver the final consignment, Manya disguised herself as a young rabbanit from Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, bringing eight cases of scriptures, a gift for the yeshivot of Ukraine. In Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, an undercover police agent gained access to her apartment and discovered where the guns were. Manya, who had a silenced pistol, shot him before he could get out and report his findings. The guns were successfully delivered to the Jewish underground. Not one was lost.
She returned to Palestine in 1906 to further pursue her Hauran plan. Towards the end of the year, she travelled to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to raise funds for that and for arms for Russian Jews. The idea of collective settlements in general, and the Hauran scheme in particular, received no support. She realised that the only way to convince people that it could work was by putting it into practice, so she returned to Palestine in 1907.
Manya shared her idea with enthusiastic members of "Poalei Tzion" and "Hapoel Hatzair". Hankin convinced Eliahu Krauzeh, the director of the Sejera
Ilaniya
- Bibliography : * ed. Yuval Elazari - Map's Concise Gazetteer of Israel Today MAP - Mapping and Publishing, Tel Aviv, 2003...
farm, to give them stewardship over it for a year. It had been one of the least successful farming plots around. Krauzeh was reluctant, because the group's radicalism could cost him his job.
18 young men and women, mainly friends of Israel Shochat, established there the land’s first ideologically based cooperative which inspired later settlement at Degania
Degania
-Further reading:* Gavron, Daniel. The Kibbutz: Awakening from Utopia. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000.-External links:* *, from the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive internet site...
. The project succeeded and lent credence to the idea of collectives. In 1908, with Israel Shochat
Israel Shochat
Israel Shochat was a founder of and a key figure in "Bar-Giora" and Hashomer, one of the precursors of the IDF. He was married to Manya Shochat.- Biography :...
, she helped found the HaShomer
Hashomer
Hashomer was a Jewish defense organization in Palestine founded out of Bar-Giora in April 1909. It ceased to operate after the founding of the Haganah in 1920. The purpose of Hashomer was to provide guard services for Jewish settlements in the Yishuv, freeing Jewish communities from dependence...
, a guard organization, which evolved into the basis of Jewish self-defense. Its goal was to put the responsibility of guarding settlements in Jewish hands.
She married Israel Shochat and had two children with him. In World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the Turks deported the Shochats and others who were Russian nationals to Bursa
Bursa, Turkey
Bursa is a city in northwestern Turkey and the seat of Bursa Province. The metropolitan area in the entire Bursa province had a population of 2.6 million as of 2010, making the city fourth most populous in Turkey. The city is equally one of the most industrialized metropolitan centers in the...
, in Turkey. They returned around Passover
Passover
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
, 1919, after attending the Poalei Tziyon
Poale Zion
Poale Zion was a Movement of Marxist Zionist Jewish workers circles founded in various cities of the Russian Empire about the turn of the century after the Bund rejected Zionism in 1901.-Formation and early years:Poale Zion parties and organisations were started across the Jewish diaspora in the...
convention in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
.
In 1921 she was in Tel-Aviv when riots broke out among the Arabs, who then attacked Jewish settlements. Along with other Hashomer members, she took part in the defence of the city. At great risk, she would walk around, disguised as a Red Cross nurse, to keep an eye out on developments. Her experience in Russia came in handy as they attempted to smuggle in grenades for the defenders of Petah-Tikva. She hid them among baskets of vegetables and eggs. The car they were in got mired just outside of the town. A patrol of Indian cavalry approached. Their role was to search all travellers for arms. With great presence of mind, Manya averted disaster. She ran up to the patrol, begging them to help rescue the car from the mud. While they were pulling it out, she watched the baskets, saying that she didn't want the eggs to break. The cavalry then even provided an escort until they got into town.
After the riots were over, she travelled the United States to raise funds for the defence efforts. Due to a series of misunderstandings between her and Pinhas Rutenberg
Pinhas Rutenberg
Pinhas Rutenberg was a prominent engineer and a businessman, a Russian socialist and a Zionist leader. He played an active role in two Russian revolutions, in 1905 and 1917. During World War I, he was among the founders of the Jewish Legion and of the American Jewish Congress...
, the transfer of funds was frozen and the two didn't speak for years.
She was active in the Gdud HaAvoda
Gdud HaAvoda
G'dud HaʿAvodah VeHaHaganah ʿAl-Shem Yosef Trumpeldor , commonly known as Gdud HaAvoda, was a socialist Zionist work group in Mandate Palestine.The group was established on 8 August 1920, with the three focuses of work, settlement and defence...
and clandestine immigration, as well as arms-smuggling. In 1930, Manya Shochat was among the founders of the League for Arab-Jewish Friendship. In 1948 she joined the Mapam
Mapam
Mapam was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party.-History:Mapam was formed by a January 1948 merger of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party and Ahdut HaAvoda Poale Zion Movement. The party was originally Marxist-Zionist in its outlook and represented...
party.
Family
She married Israel Shochat, who was 9 years younger. She had 2 children with him: Gideon (Geda) and 'Ana. Gideon Schochat was a pilot in the British Royal Air ForceRoyal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
(RAF) during World War II and later became one of the founding pilots of the Israeli Air Force
Israeli Air Force
The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the State of Israel and the aerial arm of the Israel Defense Forces. It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence...
, rising to the rank of Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
. He committed suicide in 1967. In 1971, his daughter Alona married Arik Einstein
Arik Einstein
Arik Einstein is an Israeli singer-songwriter.Einstein was a vocalist for Batzal Yarok , Shleeshiyat Gesher Hayarkon and Hahalonot Hagvohim . His collaboration with Shalom Hanoch and the Churchills planted the seeds for the first Israeli rock albums...
, a famous Israeli performer. They had 2 daughters together. They later divorced, the daughters remaining with their mother. They later became Orthodox Jews, and the daughters married Uri Zohar
Uri Zohar
Uri Zohar is a former Israeli film director, actor, and comedian who left the entertainment world to become a rabbi.-Biography:Zohar was born in Tel Aviv in 1934. In 1952, he graduated high school and did his military service in an army entertainment troupe. His first marriage ended in divorce.By...
's sons. Zohar was a good friend of Einstein and became one of the leading figures in the Orthodox community.
Sources
- Zionism and Israel Information Center by permission.
- "Darki Be'Hashomer'" (My Path to Hashomer) Manya Schochat, in "Sefer Hashomer; Divrei Chaverim" A book edited and published by Yitzhak Ben-ZviYitzhak Ben-ZviYitzhak Ben-Zvi was a historian, Labor Zionist leader, the second and longest-serving President of Israel.-Biography:...
, Israel Schochat, Mati Meged and Yochanan Taversky. - Mania Schochat's life has been belletrized by the well-known Israeli author Dvora OmerDvora OmerDvora Omer is an Israeli author, born in 1932 in Kibbutz Ma'oz Haim in Mandatory Palestine.-Biography:Omer's parents divorced when she was a child, and when she was 11 years old, her mother was killed in a training accident, in the Hagana, a pre-state military organization. Her father, Moshe...
.