The Bilu pioneers and the beginnings of Gedera

Who were the Bilu’im?

Other than its achievements in Gedera, the Bilu movement was unsuccessful. It had a surplus of ambitious ideas but lacked the financial resources and people to accomplish them. The Ottoman Empire was antagonistic to their settling in Palestine. Ideologically their members were not prepared to fit into the economic system devised by Baron Edmond de Rothschild for his new settlements and this is where the money was. The settlers of Gedera were prepared to lead religious lives to obtain finances but their ideology was not specifically religious. They succeeded in establishing only one settlement - in Gedera, with the financial support of the Chovevei Zion movement.

Bilu was initially named Davio, an acronym for the Hebrew words from Exodus “Speak unto the children of Israel that they will go forward.” However, its founder, Israel Belkind, appreciated that preaching alone would not accomplish much and he changed its name to Bilu, an acronym from a verse from the Book of Isaiah – “beit ya’akov lechu venelcha (House of Jacob, let us get going!” (2.25). The final phrase of this verse “in the light of the Lord’ was omitted.

Bilu was formed in response to a wave of pogroms in the Russian Empire between 1881 to 1884. These, together with antisemitic laws, were designed to persuade Jews to leave. Many Jews realized that assimilating into Russian society was not an option and left, mainly to America. However, a small percentage looked to Palestine.

Bilu dreamt of a political, economic and spiritual national renaissance and it encouraged young people without family ties and who were prepared for self-sacrifice and communal living to join them in establishing farming communities and industry in Palestine. They attempted to persuade the Ottoman authorities to sell them land for their movement, but they were unsuccessful and the Ottomans responded by forbidding Jewish settlement in Palestine alltogethe. There were 525 signed-up members, but only 14 were prepared to immigrate to Palestine. They bribed their way into Palestine in 1882, headed by their leader Israel Belkind. There had been a trickle of Russian Jews entering Palestine previously, but this was the first organized group. As such, it constituted the beginnings of the First Aliya.

These Bilu’im (members of Bilu) had no prior experience in agriculture, as Jews were not permitted to own land in Russia. They hired themselves out as laborers to Mikve Yisrael, the first agricultural settlement in Palestine, to gain agricultural experience and support themselves and then to the settlement of Rishon Le Zion. Their movement had insufficient funds to buy its own land, and Baron Edmund de Rothschild refused to back their political ambitions and communal ideals. In turn, the Bilu were not prepared to abandon their pan-Jewish aspirations and place themselves under his control.

Eventually, the bilu’im found someone influential to help them. Yehiel Michel Pines was a functionary of the committee founded in honor of Sir Moses Montefiore to promote Jewish settlement in Palestine. He agreed to become their leader and together they formed the Bilu Association in the Land of Israel. He arranged for some of them to move to Jerusalem to form a carpentry workshop, and he acquired land for those wishing to engage in agriculture on part of the lands of the Arab village of Qatra. He insisted, though, that members had to observe religious traditions. They were supported from funds from the Russian Zionist movement Hovevei Zion which was able to encompass both messianic and more liberal Jews such as the Bilu’im.

In the winter of 1884, on the second day of Chanuka, two members of Bilu arrived to a barren hillside near the Arab village of Qatra, in the area which would eventually become part of Gedera. They lit two bonfires in honor of the festival. (The second day of Chanuka is observed as a holiday in the moshava to this day). They were joined by seven more of their colleagues, and they lived together in a wooden shed. Their conditions were miserable. When they obtained two horses, they built the stable beneath the ground as their regular stable was destroyed by the Ottomans for being built without permission. They had to guard their fields at night because of Muslim marauders and had a poor relationship with the Arabs of Qatra. Eventually, they found it necessary to accept largesse from the ultimate bourgeoise, Baron Edmund de Rothschild, but on his conditions. Their first stone house was built 4 years later.

Not surprisingly, given the ideals of its inhabitants, Gedera became a secret base for the Haganah during the British Mandate. During the War of Independence, a front-line command headquarters and field hospital was set up here.

Although Gedera succeeded, the vision of Bilu was too grandiose without the people and money to support it and the movement eventually folded. Interestingly, many immigrants to Palestine during the Second Aliya had the same type of vision as the bilu’im. However, they also had the people to accomplish it. Bilu was just too ahead of its time.