{"id":64790,"date":"2019-10-26T11:20:02","date_gmt":"2019-10-26T08:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64790"},"modified":"2023-05-21T15:35:38","modified_gmt":"2023-05-21T12:35:38","slug":"the-bilu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-bilu\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bilu"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[444,539,638],"acf":{"old_id":"64790","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":42746,"related_cahpter":"336","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"\u201cO House of Jacob! Come, let us walk!\u201d","content":"

The 1880\u2019s saw a dramatic increase in pogroms and anti-Semitic laws introduced by the Russian Tsars against the Jews, aiming at \u201ca third of the Jews migrating away, one third – dying of hunger and one third \u2013 getting baptized\u201d. Many laws were directed at limiting where Jews could live; forcing them to be drafted into army service, reduction of their quota in academic institutions which left many jobless; encouragement of the neighboring towns to riot and attack them, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Jews reacted to these pressures in various ways: some joined the Russian parties, integrated into the culture around them and assimilated (some of that accounts for the huge immigration wave from Russia to Israel in recent decades), others left for South and North America, while still others opted for the Zionist movement and a life in the Land of Israel, in what became known as \u201cThe First Aliya\u201d. Their innovation was a desire to live on the Land and specialize in agriculture, as opposed to previous waves of immigration who often went for religious reasons and to die there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps the most famous group in this wave of immigration was known as Bilu. Bilu was an acronym from a verse from this chapter (2:5): <\/span>Beit Yaakov lechu ve\u2019nelcha<\/span><\/em> \u2013 \u201cO House of Jacob! Come, let us walk\u201d. They called for political, national and economic renewal of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel, along with the renewal of the Hebrew language. Like other songs and slogans of that era, these early Zionists removed the end of the verse from their name: \u201cBe\u2019or Hashem \u2013 by the light of God\u201d, wishing to go by their own powers and no one else, God included.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first group arrived at Jaffa port on July 6, 1882. Wishing to work the Land, they went to Mikveh Yisrael, an agricultural school founded in 1870. They were a group of 14 students, among them one woman. Therefore, when they rented their two-bedroom apartment, they divided it \u201cfairly\u201d: one room for the 13 men and the other room, for the one woman. Their life in Mikveh Yisrael was extremely difficult and challenging, and in November of that year, they moved to Rishon LeZion and try their luck there.<\/span><\/p>\n

By 1884 there were close to 50 Bilu pioneers in the Land. Life continued to be hard as initially, crops were limited, and their neighbors complained about them because they were \u201cway too secular.\u201d Some established Gedera, then a semi-cooperative moshava and now a town, just east of Ashdod, while others scattered to different places and even left the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201cFirst Aliya\u201d (1881-1904) included 55,000 immigrants of which the Bilu pioneers were but a tiny fraction. Nevertheless, they made at least one of Isaiah\u2019s verses (or part thereof) very famous.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You can listen to Bilu\u2019s anthem and read its words here<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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