Draft:Menasheh Meirovitch



Menashe Meirovitch (born in 1860, died on the 12th of Tammuz 5709, July 9, 1949) was a member of the Bilu movement, an agronomist, a writer, and one of the leaders of the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel during the First Aliyah and afterwards. He was known as 'the last of the Biluim.

Biography
Menashe Meirovitch was born in Nikolayev in southern Russia. At the age of ten, he moved to Odessa, where he studied in a regulated Cheder founded by Moshe Leib Lilienblum. At the age of 19, he completed his studies at the Realschule and was accepted into the Institute of Agriculture and Forestry in Pulawy, near Lublin. At the age of 22, he was certified as an agronomist and became one of only three Jewish agronomists in all of Russia (the other two were Avraham Zusman and Yaakov Rostovsky). At the age of 25, he submitted a work on the subject of vineyard colonies in the Land of Israel ('Advice and Wisdom: Or a Proposal on the Matter of Vineyard Plantations and Grape Growing in the Land of Israel').

In November 1882, Menashe Meirovitch traveled to Constantinople and was active in the political office of the Bilu movement, which endeavored to obtain the Ottoman government's consent for Jewish agricultural settlement in the Land of Israel. When it became clear that there was no hope for this, he decided to immigrate to the Land of Israel, and in early January 1883, he arrived in Jaffa, where his colleagues from the Bilu organization were waiting for him and brought him to Rishon LeZion.

Meirovitch began to engage in poultry farming and dairy operations. He strongly opposed the Baron Rothschild's guardianship system and the rule of the officials, but during the rebellion against the official Joshua Ossovitzky, he refused to join the rebels due to a clear-sighted view of the situation. He realized that without the Baron, there was no one to provide adequate economic support to the Zionist settlers, and that the pockets of the 'Lovers of Zion' were empty, capable only of offering lofty rhetoric about the revival of the people. Meirovitch warned his colleagues not to 'throw the baby out with the bathwater'. In the colony, the rebels saw him as timid and faint-hearted, but he stood his ground. Between 1903 and 1904, he headed the working committee of the Lovers of Zion in Jaffa. In 1906, he was among the founders of the Vinegrowers Association. In 1913, he was among the founders of the Union of the Colonies in Judea.

"During the outbreak of World War I, he was the representative of the colonies in the Jewish settlement to the Turkish authorities. In those years, he fought against the locust plague. With the exposure of the NILI network, a search was conducted in the winery and the colony committee, and Meirovitch was tied up and taken to Ramla, facing the possibility of expulsion. The intervention of Avraham (Albert) Antebi with Jamal Pasha led to his release.

Meirovitch published many books and articles. Between 1893 and 1896, he edited the first agricultural newspaper in the Land of Israel, 'HaIkker'. He would sign his articles with the name - 'One of the Elders of the Settlement'.

In his letter to Pinsker from 1885, Meirovitch seemed to have concluded that it was possible to establish vineyard-based agricultural settlements for people with limited means, and he attached the initial budget for establishing such a settlement to this letter. The foundation of his proposal was the concept of an industrial-agricultural colony to be settled by economically disadvantaged people. From all this, Meirovitch saw that the establishment of vineyard colonies 'would serve as an economic basis for an entire class – the Jewish middle class, and ensure the economic security of the settlers from the beginning of their settlement.' Based on Meirovitch's plan, settlement associations began to form, eager for a structured economic plan for settlement that would lead them to establish successful colonies. They accepted his economic model without objection and even tried to 'reduce costs' by choosing even poorer people than Meirovitch had planned, in order to lower the payment amounts and reduce the cost of settlement. In fact, while Meirovitch estimated 1,200 rubles for the establishment of a settlement over five years, these associations reduced the cost to 582 rubles.

Between 1911 and 1912, Meirovitch wrote a column in the newspaper 'Palestine' that dealt with the problems of the fellahin (peasants) in the Land of Israel. He signed his columns with the pen name 'Abu Ibrahim'. In 1920, he was elected on behalf of the Union of Farmers' list to the Assembly of Representatives and the National Committee. He also served in the second Assembly of Representatives, representing the 'Rishon LeZion Agricultural Center List'.

Meirovitch lived a long life and was the only member of the Bilu movement who had the privilege of witnessing the establishment of the State of Israel, hence his nickname 'the last of the Biluim'. After the establishment of the state, he changed his name to 'HaBilu'i'. Meirovitch was married twice. On the 25th of Elul 5643 (1883), he married Fanny, daughter of Zeev Abramovitz (one of the founders of Rishon LeZion). The couple had one son and two daughters. Fanny passed away on the 21st of Tishrei 5694 (1893). On the 1st of Nisan 5695 (1894), he married Miriam, her sister. The couple had seven sons and two daughters. Menashe Meirovitch passed away in Rishon LeZion and was buried in the old cemetery of his city. His son, Bar-Kochba Meirovitch, was the head of the Maritime Department of the Jewish Agency from 1936, and later became the first director of the Shipping and Ports Department in the Ministry of Transportation.

The village of Talmey Menashe is named after him.