Hehalutz

Hehalutz (“the pioneer” in Hebrew) was a Zionist pioneering movement, originating in czarist Russia in the early 1900s, where various unrelated organisations advocating settlement abroad (to the United States, Palestine) would gradually from a national and later worldwide movement. Hehalutz was a Zionist but officially non-partisan association of young Jewish workers determined to settle in “Eretz Israel”, where they would develop and work the land themselves. Its youth movement was called Hehalutz Hatzair. The Hehalutz program was composed of three steps: organisation, training (hakhsharah) and emigration (aliyah). The ultimate goal of Hehalutz was the establishment of a sovereign Jewish homeland in Palestine. The organisation accepted the authority of the World Zionist Organisation. Hehalutz developed rapidly in the interwar period; sections were soon established all over the world – in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, North and South America, and South Africa. On the eve of World War II, the movement counted some 100,000 members. By that time, a large portion of workers and the large majority of kibbutz members in Palestine were trained by Hehalutz. The Hehalutz world movement did not survive the Second World War, although its activities were continued in some form in the United States and Europe. Hehalutz in Belgium appears to have been founded by Hashomer Hatzair; it had a membership of around 215 in 1940. It was composed of Hashomer Hatzair, Dror, Gordonia, Maccabi Hatzair, Yung Bor and non-affiliated youth known as ‘Stam Halutz’. Hehalutz Belgium established a training center in Villers-la-Ville (close to Nivelles) and, after it was closed down, in Bomal near the town of Jodoigne (1942-1943). The movement also helped Jewish refugees from Austria and Germany, and established a hakhsharah center in the refugee camp in Merksplas. There were also experiments with ‘city’ and ‘industrial’ training, by establishing communes and working in the coal mines.