Menachem Ussishkin - Biography

Menachem Ussishkin (14 August 1863 - 2 October 1941) was a Russian-born Zionist leader and head of the Jewish National Fund. Avraham Menachem Mendel Ussishkin was born in Dubroŭna in the Belarusian part of the Russian Empire, Ussishkin graduated as a technical engineer from Moscow Technological Institute. He actively worked for the revival of the Hebrew language and Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel, then part of the Ottoman Empire, and was a member of Hovevei Zion movement.

He served as Secretary of the First Zionist Congress. He was one of the leaders who rejected the Uganda plan.

In his pamphlet "Our Program" he advocated group settlement based on labour Zionism. Under his influence the Zionist movement actively supported the establishment of agricultural settlements, educational and cultural institutions, and Jewish polytechnic - which would later become Technion (Israel's institute of technology).

In 1919 Ussishkin made aliyah to Palestine. In 1923 he was elected President of the Jewish National Fund which he headed until his death. Ussishkin was behind large land acquisitions in the Hefer, Jezreel and Beit She'an valleys. He died in 1941 at the age of 78. He is buried in the botanical gardens of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus campus.

External links

• Menachem Ussishkin Jewish Agency for Israel
• The personal papers of Menachem Ussishkin are kept at the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem