Two Centuries of Immigration Show the Zionist Movement Was Not the Beginning

A concluding essay in the Orthodox newsletter "U'Achvata," published by Ahavat Torah, argues that Jewish attachment to the Land of Israel stretches back two centuries of continuous immigration, settlement, and building, long before the first Zionist Congress in 1897 and continuing afterward. The article says the story begins with early Hasidim, the students of the Vilna Gaon, and later waves from Hungary, Morocco, Yemen, Persia, Bukhara, and the First Aliyah.

It stresses that the stream of aliyah never stopped, even in dangerous and difficult periods. The article cites 1747, when the first Hasidim came to the land, 1777, when Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk arrived in Tiberias, 1809, when the Vilna Gaon’s students left Lithuania, and later waves in the 1860s and 1870s. It says these movements all predated political Zionism by decades, including Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer’s "Derishat Zion," Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai’s "Minhat Yehuda," and the First Congress in Basel.

The essay rejects the stereotype that the Old Yishuv opposed change. It says Rabbi Shmuel Salant supported strengthening both the "Old Yishuv" and the "New Yishuv" through agriculture, and that the founders of Petah Tikva were Jerusalem families from the Old Yishuv who had the backing of local rabbis. It also highlights Rabbi Naftali Hirsch Levin, who handled kashrut, shemita issues, and support for the moshavot, and notes that Salant opposed a leniency in 1889 but later eased his position in 1896 when conditions worsened.

The article presents religious leaders as active builders of the land, not passive dreamers. It cites Rabbi Yehuda Bibas, Rabbi Kalischer, Rabbi Eliezer Gutmacher, Rabbi Shmuel Mohliver, the Netziv, and Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor, who praised Hovevei Zion and called settlement in the land a great mitzvah. It says Katowice took place 13 years before Basel, Mikveh Israel 27 years earlier, Petah Tikva 19 years earlier, and Jerusalem’s outer neighborhoods 36 years earlier.

In its closing reflection, the article says the history of aliyah raises enduring questions about sacrifice, prayer, action, hidden pioneers, and what Jews today owe to the same cause. It concludes that the bond between the Jewish people and their land did not begin with Zionism and will not end with it, and that the story, which began with Abraham, is still unfinished.