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Editing User:Hms2026/Ahad Ha'am - Wikipedia

User:Hms2026/Ahad Ha'am - Wikipedia

https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/29258/1/10731353.pdf      -    Details Ahad Ha'am's relationship with the Ha - Shiloah\

d This is not the way (The wrong Way)-Zionism and the History of Israel - Source document texts (zionismontheweb.org -      "This is not the way primary source"

Leon Simon biography - find it, on Libgen

Middlebury Library:

Ahad Haam biography and relationship to ''' zionism. ''' "Elusive Prophet"

3 unpublished letters of Ahad : Three Unpublished Letters from the Archives of Ahad Ha-'Am: Translation and Commentary on JSTOR

The choice of the name was not accidental, because there were other names under consideration. "The paper will be called Ha-Shiloah, « because I have finally realized that it is the most suitable of all the names which have occurred to my m i n d . " ^ ^ The name was symbolic of his desire for the gradual development of Hebrew literature and good literary taste. His idea was to create a Hebrew monthly which would be similar in its literary standard to the

Article Draft
Things actually put into the article:

Journalism Career[edit]
Ginsberg's literary career began after moving to Odessa in 1886, adopting the pen name "Ahad Ha'am". His first article was published in 1889. Ginsberg wrote a number of articles and essays during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries focused on the Jewish community and the direction of Zionism. He was mainly a proponent of a moderate movement focused on cultural Zionism in contrast to the practical Zionism he observed when visiting Palestine. Some of his famous essays include "Truth from Eretz Israel" and "Lo zu haderekh" (This is not the way).

He also founded the Hebrew monthly newspaper Ha-Shiloaḥ, a prominent Hebrew-language literary journal in the early twentieth century, and was chief editor from 1896-1902 before stepping down.

After his move to Tel Aviv in Palestine he published a 4-volume collection of his essays called "Al Parashat Derakhim" as well as a 6-volume collection of his edited letters.

Ha-Shiloah[edit]
With the collapse of his family business in 1896, Ginsberg had to turn to Hebrew literature to be his main source of income. He subsequently accepted a position as Director of the Ahiasaf Publishing Company, moving to Warsaw to be at the company's headquarters. Ginsberg had to help produce the company's annual almanac for 1896, but he soon switched focus to a more appealing project, a monthly Hebrew journal where he would take the role of chief editor.

Ginsberg named the publication Ha-Shiloah after a river in the Bible. The river in the Bible was known for water that goes softly, and he wanted his monthly to reflect the slow, methodical development of Hebrew literature he hoped his monthly would curate.

Ginsberg's desire for a respected Hebrew journal drove him to run the monthly with a high standard and tight control. His goal was to create a journal that was Judeocentric with the same quality of respected European journals at the time. To create this standard, prose and fictional writings were kept to separate sections, and had to maintain the theme of focus on the Jewish experience. Ginsberg's editorial style was also thorough and aggressive, often omitting entire pages of articles and restructuring whole essays where he deemed fit. Though the journal was respected by Western scholars, the sales were small and dwindled every year. Ginsberg eventually resigned in October 1902 when he predicted either the paper would be closed, or he would be fired.

Despite Ha-Shiloah's low sales, Ginsberg's strict curation and editorial style led to him being recognized as a key contributor in the development of a new, secular Hebrew essay writing style that is now known as the Odessa Style. This style is often described as being clear, succinct, positivist, and anti-romantic, and it almost entirely focuses on Jewish topics. As editor of Ha-Shiloa from 1896 until 1902, Ahad Ha'am established the Odessa Style as a benchmark for Hebrew writing.

Visits to Palestine[edit]
Ahad Ha'am with Bezalel Art School founder Boris Schatz against backdrop of "The Wandering Jew" by Samuel Hirszenberg

Asher Ginsberg travelled frequently to Palestine and published reports about the progress of Jewish settlement there. The essays were generally critical, focusing on the shortcomings of the movement. They reported on hunger, on Arab dissatisfaction and unrest, on unemployment, and on people leaving Palestine. In an essay soon after his 1891 journey to the area he warned against the 'great error', believing the movement was doom to failure with resistance in land purchases, local attitudes, economic feasibility, and lack of nationalist motivation.

Truth from Eretz Israel[edit]
Asher Ginsberg first visited Palestine in 1891 (the Ottoman Vilayet (province) of Beirut and the Sanjak (district) of Jerusalem), to observe the progress of the First Aliyah, or the first wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine (1882-1903). When he returned home, he published a series of five essays in the St. Petersburg-based Hebrew paper Ha-Melitz entitled "Truth From Eretz Israel". The essays were a comprehensive critique of the immigration efforts from both logistical and ethical perspectives, presenting a somber report of future Jewish colonization efforts there.

"Truth from Eretz Israel" raised concerns about the Turkish government and native Arab population, both of whom would heavily resist the transformation of Palestine into a Jewish state. The essay also questioned the survival and prosperity of Jewish settlers currently in Palestine. The reliance on viticulture was unproven and currently unsustainable for Jewish farmers. This, along with inflated land prices, raised additional barriers to any goal of Zionism. Ahad Ha'am ultimately believed the Hovevei Zion movement would be a failure because the new villages were dependent on the largesse of outside benefactors, and the impoverished settlers of his day would struggle to build any Jewish homeland.

The series of essays is considered to be among the first works to seriously address the "Arab Issue" within the Zionist movement. Ahad Ha'am was critical of the Jewish people's treatment and attitude towards the native Arab population:"'We who live abroad are accustomed to believing that the Arabs are all wild desert people who, like donkeys, neither see nor understand what is happening around them. But this is a grave mistake.'"The essay then claims that the Arabs knew of Zionist's intentions but played along for the increased wages and property values. Though it was only briefly mentioned, Ahad Ha'am also forewarned that if Jewish settlers began to truly overtake the Arab's way of life, they will not yield lightly, accurately foreshadowing the decades of conflict that would occur in the region.

Ahad Ha'am believed the solution was to bring Jews to Palestine gradually, while turning it into a cultural centre. At the same time, it was incumbent upon Zionism to inspire a revival of Jewish national life in the Diaspora. Only then would the Jewish people be strong enough to assume the mantle of building a nation state.

The series was criticized heavily within the Zionist movement, with many claiming that the essays provided a one-sided view of the Jewish national efforts, and others claiming that the series defamed Jewish settlers, both generally and specifically in Palestine. Asher Ginsberg's critiques of the Hovevei Zionists, an organization of which he was a member, cemented his reputation as an internal critic and moral compass for Zionism.

Political influence[edit]
Ahad Ha’am's proposal to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 Asher Ginsberg's political influence was relatively small when compared to the impact and proliferation of his published works. His desire to be seen as a neutral, apolitical commentator led to him often staying on the sidelines of political events. He spoke at many conferences and advised prominent leaders but would avoid opportunities for responsibility and leadership whenever they were presented.

Ginsberg's first significant political action was founding the Bnei Moshe, a secret political organization, in 1889, and assuming leadership. He also joined the Odessa committee, a committee advocating for the immigration of Jewish people to Israel, along with many of his Bnei Moshe brethren from 1891-1895.

Ahad Ha'am's influence in the political realm was more from his influence on political leaders and his spiritual authority rather than his official functions. For the "Democratic Fraction," a party that espoused cultural Zionism (founded in 1901 by Chaim Weizmann), he served "as a symbol for the movement's culturalists, the faction's most coherent totem. He was, however, not – certainly not to the extent to which members of this group, especially Chaim Weizmann, would later contend – its chief ideological influence." Though the party wished for Ahad's participation or even endorsement, he would remain uninvolved.

Ahad Ha'am was a talented negotiator. He used his skills in compromise during the "language controversy" that accompanied the founding of the Haifa Technikum (today: the Technion) and in the negotiations culminating in the Balfour Declaration. Ahad Ha'am was also a close advisor to Chaim Weizmann and other British Zionists at the time of the negotiations. After the Balfor Declaration he held a position on the Zionist "Political Committee", along with being a powerful advisor to the British Zionists as they battled anti-Zionist efforts.

Ahad Ha'am Versus Theodore Herzl

Ahad Ha'am had the potential to represent a political alternative to Herzl after the first Zionist Congress. His critique of the congress, along with his success in convincing the 160 delegates of the All-Russian Zionism Conference to support his beliefs, provided a strong foundation for a countermovement to Herzl's vision. Despite this strong support, Ahad's choices to not join the second Congress and defend his position, as well as call for the dissolution of Bnei Moshe in 1895 and 1897, resulted in Herzlian Zionism becoming the dominant approach. Ahad Ha'am and Thomas Herzl would remain rivals for years, and their conflicting views would spark disagreements between Eastern and Western Zionists throughout the early twentieth century.