At the start of the 20th century, Wolffsohn accompanied Theodor Herzl in his travels to Istanbul. (October 13, 1898 Zionist delegation takes the Orient Express to Constantinople. | October 19, 1898 Zionist delegation embarks on the "Emperor Nicholas II" )and Palestine. November 4, 1898 Zionist delegation embarks Jaffa English cargo "Dundee" loaded with oranges for Alexandria. "In 1894 I delivered in Cologne my first address on Zionism and helped to found the local society for the promotion and support of Jewish agriculture in Syria and Palestine, which was established in the same year." The idea of Herzl meeting with the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, in November 1898 was simple enough: Palestine was under Turkish control, and Germany was Turkey’s most influential ally – so if the Kaiser would only persuade the Sultan to allow for a creation of a “German protectorate” for world Jewry in Turkish-controlled Palestine, then the Jews might have a state in “Eretz Israel.” To that end, Herzl journeyed to Jerusalem to meet with the Kaiser; on October 18th, in Istanbul, Herzl argued the case for a Jewish state; on the 28th, they met briefly in Jerusalem, and then had a third, and final meeting, on November 2nd. But whereas the first final meeting, on November 2nd. But whereas the first meetings held out some hope, the last proved a failure. Meeting with the Zionist delegation of Herzl, David Wolffson (who would later become the head of the Zionist movement), lawyer Max Bodenheimer, engineer Joseph Seidener and Herzl’s doctor M.T. Schnirer, the Emperor declared that “the issue needs further examination and further discussion” – in other words, no help would be forthcoming. The delegation was downhearted, but not Herzl: “You see,” he explained, “I am a leader, not because I am intelligent or better than you, but because I am fearless… in difficult times, such as these, I remain optimistic.”
This historic association piece is indicative, too, of the tense relationship between Herzl and Ussishkin[*]: on the one hand, the sending of the card was a definite courtesy; but that it said nothing, spoke of their estrangement.
Postcard Signed, being a highly decorative color depiction of Jerusalem scenes, co-signed by Joseph Seidener, David Wolffssohn, Max Bodenheimer and Moritz Schnirer; 2 page, duodecimo, Jerusalem, addressed to Herrn Ing Ussyschkin Y. | Ekaterinoslau, Russland.
[*] Menachem Ussishkin (14 August 1863 – 2 October 1941) was a Russian-born Zionist leader and head of the Jewish National Fund. Avraham Menachem Mendel Ussishkin was born in Dubroŭna in the Belarusian part of the Russian Empire. In 1889, he graduated as a technical engineer from Moscow Technological Institute. Ussishkin was among the founders of the BILU movement and the Moscow branch of the Hovevei Zion. He also joined the Bnei Moshe society founded by Ahad HaAm. In 1891, he made his first trip to Palestine.
During the revolution of the Young Turks CUP in 1908, Ussishkin went to Constantinople in an attempt to promote the Zionist cause with the help of influential Sephardi Jews.
In 1913 He served as Secretary of the First Zionist Congress. At the Sixth Zionist Congress he opposed the Uganda plan. He was one of the Jewish delegates to the Paris peace conference after World War I. In 1919, Ussishkin made aliyah to Palestine. In 1920 he was appointed head of the Zionist Commission in Palestine. In his pamphlet "Our Program" he advocated group settlement based on labour Zionism. Under his influence the Zionist movement actively supported the establishment of agricultural settlements, educational and cultural institutions, and Jewish polytechnic - later the Technion.
Mavi Boncuk |
David Wolfsohn[1] (Yiddish: דוד וואלפסאן; Hebrew: דוד וולפסון; 9 October 1856, Darbėnai (Polish: Dorbiany), Homburg, German Empire, Kovno Governorate - 15 September 1914),
When Theodor Herzl, was organizing the first Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897, he thought about an official national flag for the representatives of the Jewish people, who were gathering together. In his book Der Judenstadt ("The Jewish State") he wrote thus: "We have no flag, and we need one at a time when one wishes to lead many people; of necessity one needs to wave a sign above their heads." He continued: "For myself I would have a white flag with seven golden stars, the white cloth background symbolizing the new pure life. The stars are the seven golden hours of our work day, for the Jews go to the new land with a symbol of work."
Herzl entrusted the preparatory work on a Jewish flag to his assistant David Wolfsohn. In a letter to Baron Hirsch, he wrote: "If they ask me derisively, what is this flag? I will reply that a flag is not a stick with a piece of rag; a flag is something symbolic and national and with a flag one leads people anywhere one wants, even to the Promised Land."
David Wolfsohn hesitated over the form of the flag, which had to be ready for the opening of the Congress: "At the behest of our leader Herzl, I came to Basel in order to do all the preparations for the opening of the First Congress. Among the many questions I had to deal with was one which, while not weighty was not light either, containing as it did within it, the great Hebrew problem. With which flag will we decorate the hall of the Congress? What will be its colours? Since we had no flag, the issue perplexed me greatly. It was necessary to design a flag, but which colours were to be chosen? And then came a brainwave. For we already had a flag, white and blue, the talit, with which we enwrap ourselves during prayers. This would be our symbol; we would remove the talit from its wrapping and show it before Israel and the nations. Consequently, I ordered a blue and white flag with a Shield of David on it, and thus was born our national flag."
At the eighth Zionist Congress in Prague in 1933, an official decision was reached regarding the flag: "The blue and white flag is the flag of the Zionist Organisation and the Jewish People, in accordance with a long standing tradition."
[1] Juliusz Wolfsohn (1880-1944) came from a well known Zionist family. His uncle, David Wolfsohn, was among the first Zionist leaders, later he became Theodor Herzl's successor as President of the World Zionist Organization. Juliusz Wolfsohn studied piano at the Conservatories of his home city, Warsaw, and in Moscow and then with Raoul Pugno in Paris and with Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna. Already in the early 1910s Wolfsohn began, without any connection to the activities in St. Petersburg, to collect and arrange Jewish folk songs. Until 1920 he composed 12 „Paraphrases on Old Jewish Folk Tunes“ for piano, which were printed in 3 volumes by Universal Edition, as well as a "Jewish Rhapsody" for piano, which was also based on Jewish folk themes.
[2]Joseph Seidener ... Russian Jewish engineer ... part of the Zionist Delegation to Jerusalem at the time of Wilhelm II's visit there in 1898. Seidener was president of the Zionist groups in Germany
[3] Moses Schnirer ( Dr. Moritz Tobias Schnirer , sporadically: Tobias Moritz Schnirer ; * September 23 1860 in Bucharest , † March 15 1941 in Vienna ) was a Zionist before Herzl . He lived from 1880 in Vienna and practiced there as a physician. He was a founding member of the Jewish fraternity "Kadimah" and the Vienna "Zion" society (from 1893 Chairman of the Association "Zion" of the Austrian colonization clubs). 1889-1893 he was president of the Vienna Palestine Colonization Association "Admath Jeshurun." Since the first Zionist Congress (Basel 1897), he was a Vice President to "Restricted Action Committee" and was during the first Congress in the Commission for practical colonization chosen (together with Willy bamboo , Armand Kaminka , Alexander Mintz and Shlomo Ben Zion Rubenstein). He took paty in 1898 Herzl's journey to Palestine. In 1905 he was in the Austro-Zionist National Committee; 1905 and 1906 intensive participation in the efforts to achieve autonomy of Austrian Zionists, was soon displaced by the moving up younger Zionists. In 1941, he committed suicide with his wife.