USSISCHKIN, MENACHEM (1863-1941). Russian-born Zionist leader and longtime head of the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth Le’Israel). TLS. (Signed in Hebrew “M. Ussishkin”). ½p. 4to. Odessa, July 19, 1910. On the German and Hebrew stationery of the Odessa Committee, formally known as the Committee of the Society to Support Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Syria and Palestine. To the Anglo-Palestine Bank in Jaffa. In Hebrew with translation.
“Please receive herewith a voucher for the amount of eight hundred (800) silver rubles, which we have deposited into the account of Mr. S. Barbash for the benefit of your account, and we kindly request that you confirm receipt of this sum in francs according to the exchange rate. With respect and Zion’s blessings…”
Born in the Russian Empire, Ussischkin, prompted by the relentless anti-Semitic pogroms that swept across Russia in the 1880s, was one of the founders of Bilu, whose goal was the agricultural settlement of Palestine. Furthering that mission was the Society to Support Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Syria and Palestine – called the Odessa Committee – founded in 1890, and which, until 1919, helped relocate Russian Jews to agricultural settlements including the cities of Rehovot and Hadera which it established in Palestine. Ussischkin served as the organization’s chairman beginning in 1906 and signed our letter in this capacity. Our missive sends funds collected from the Jewish diaspora to the Jaffa office of the Anglo-Palestine Bank, the central financial institution of the early Zionist movement and mentions Samuel Barbash (c. 1850-1921), Russian banker and treasurer of the Odessa Committee.
Ussischkin served as secretary of the First Zionist Congress where he vigorously opposed Herzl’s plan to establish a Jewish homeland in Uganda. He fled the 1917 Russian Revolution for London later joining the Zionist delegation sent to the Paris Peace Conference. He made his Aliyah to Palestine in 1919 and quickly became head of the Zionist Commission in Palestine. From 1923 until his death, Ussishkin led the Jewish National Fund during which time he acquired major tracts of land for Eretz Yisrael.
Docketed with a French ink stamp dated August 15, 1910. Folded into quarters with some creasing and wear as well as a few minor portions of paper loss in the margins. In very good condition.
