1821 - 1891.
Leon Pinsker, born in Poland in 1839, was a prominent 19th-century Jewish leader, Zionist pioneer, physician, and writer.
He completed his medical studies at the University of Moscow and, in 1849, was appointed as the senior physician at Odessa Hospital.
During this time, Pinsker believed that Russian Jews would gain emancipation due to equal rights movements developing in Western Europe.
He initially believed that the problem of antisemitism could be solved through emancipation—granting equal rights and assimilating Jews into their surroundings, in the spirit of the equality achieved by Jews in Germany.
n 1860, Pinsker started writing anonymous articles in Russian Jewish newspapers, encouraging Russian Jews to view Russia as their homeland while preserving their Jewish identity. He promoted secular education for Jews and supported translating Hebrew texts, such as the Bible, into Russian.
However, a pogrom in Odessa in 1871 and another in 1881, ignored by the government and supported by the press, shook his beliefs. This led him to abandon his assimilationist views and embrace a more conservative approach.
In 1882, Pinsker published his influential pamphlet Auto-Emancipation, anonymously written in German, urging Jewish people to pursue independence and national consciousness. This work remains his most renowned contribution.
Building on this idea, Pinsker emphasized that the solution for Jews would not come from others but from within themselves. What they needed was not emancipation, but auto-emancipation! He believed that the only solution to anti-Semitism was territorial, where Jews would concentrate in one country where they would be protected and free.
Pinsker proposed that Jews establish a national home for themselves, with a Jewish assembly deciding where this home would be: in the Land of Israel, the United States, or elsewhere. As the motto for his booklet, Pinsker chose the words of Hillel the Elder from Pirkei Avot: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?"
This text became a fundamental text in the history of Zionism.
He joined the Hovevei Zion Association, which promoted the establishment of Jewish settlements in the Land of Israel. In 1884, Pinsker was among the initiators of the Katowice Conference. At this conference, the Hovevei Zion movement was founded with the aim of uniting the activities of dozens of Zionist associations.
He was chosen to head the movement.
He died in 1891 at 70, six years before the First Zionist Congress, and in 1934 his bones were brought to Israel.
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