276 • 16 THE CONTEST FOR PALESTINEgovernment (often misnamed the "Uganda Scheme") that would have let
the Zionists settle in what later would be called Kenya's White Highlands.
But most of Herzl's followers, especially the Russian Jews, emphatically re¬
fused to form a state anywhere outside the land of Israel, saying that "there
can be no Zionism without Zion." The movement split on this issue and
others. When Herzl died in 1904, it seemed likely that the high hopes of
early Zionism would never be realized.The Second Aliya
If Herzl's life and teachings constituted the first event that saved political
Zionism, the second was the large-scale emigration of Jews from Russia fol¬
lowing its abortive 1905 revolution. Even though most decided to seek free¬
dom and opportunity in that goldene medina (a Yiddish expression meaning
"land of gold") overseas, the US, some of the most idealistic men and
women chose Palestine instead. With intense fervor and dedication, these
Jewish settlers of the "second aliya' (1905-1914) built up the fledgling insti¬
tutions of their community in Palestine: schools, newspapers, theaters,
sports clubs, trade unions, worker-owned factories, and political parties. Be¬
cause the Jews entering Palestine had spoken so many different languages in
the countries from which they had come, the olim made a concerted effort
to revive Hebrew as a spoken and written language. Soon Jewish children
and young adults in Palestine were speaking Hebrew as their first language.
Their most famous achievement was a novel experiment in agricultural
settlement called the kibbutz (collective farm), in which all houses, animals,
and farming equipment belonged to the group as a whole, all decisions
were made democratically, and all jobs (including cooking, cleaning, and
child rearing) were shared by the members. Not all kibbutzim succeeded,
but the best survived because their members were dedicated to rebuilding
the Jewish national home and to redeeming the land by their own labor.
Although most olim went to live in the cities, including what became the
first all-Jewish city in modern history, Tel Aviv, those who chose the kib¬
butzim have come to typify Israel's pioneer spirit: idealistic, self-reliant,
and rather contemptuous of outsiders. The kibbutzniks toiled extremely
long hours for what at first were pitiful material benefits, but they were de¬
termined to develop their lands (bought for them by the Jewish National
Fund at high prices from absentee Arab and Turkish landlords) without re¬
sorting to cheap Arab peasant labor, a step toward Jewish self-reliance but
also toward the exclusion of Arab Palestinians from their homeland.
Because the pioneers of the second aliya were brave and resourceful
people, the founders of what would become the State of Israel, we may