Bidspirit auction | Protocol of the First Meetings

Protocol of the First Meetings of the “Hovevei Zion” Movement - The first modern-era organizational assembly dedicated to the settlement of the Land of Israel - Protocol of the “Katowice Conference” – Year 1885 – “Printed as a Manuscript” - Complete transcript of the first meetings held by the “Hovevei Zion” movement upon its founding - Limited first edition for the conference participants. Bound with a Yiddish guide to the Land of Israel, published by “Hovevei-Zion” – Zhitomir, 1888 – Extremely rare. The protocol booklet of the Katowice Conference, containing the complete transcript of the first five meetings held by the “Hovevei Zion” movement, conducted between November 6–11, 1884. Thirty-six delegates participated in the conference, among the leading figures of the Zionist idea (including Rabbi Samuel Mohilever, Yehuda Leib Pinsker, “Ahad Ha’am, ” David Gordon, and others), with the aim of founding, for the first time, a movement that would act practically to increase Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel. In the opening speech of Dr. Pinsker, he calls upon the Jewish people to cast off the burden of exile and return “to our aged mother” - the Land of Israel: “For nearly two thousand years the people of Israel have been the traders and merchants among the nations, exporting and importing the produce of one people to another... All the nations dwell, each upon its own land... We must understand through vision and foresight the spirit of this era, pregnant with great and vigorous deeds, in which we are living today... Today we shall return to our aged mother, the land which with great mercy awaits us, to feed us from her fruit and satisfy us with her goodness... And we shall carry with strength the exalted and lofty idea - the idea of settling our ancient land...״. During the meetings, practical directives were established for founding societies dedicated to the Zionist idea in every place, creating the “Keren Kayemet Le-Mazkeret Moshe” fund for collecting money toward the building of the Land of Israel, strengthening the settlement of Petah Tikva, and more. The conference was held in secrecy and was presented as a gathering marking the one-hundredth birthday of Moses Montefiore, since Zionist activity was forbidden in Russia. The present edition was apparently printed in only several dozen copies and distributed to the participants of the conference (an additional edition was printed in German, in which the nationalist and Zionist sections of Pinsker’s speech were omitted). In 1920, a second edition of the booklet was printed by the writer Leibl Taubes (Adria Press, Vienna), and its introduction states: “This protocol was originally printed ‘as a manuscript’ in a limited number corresponding to the number of members of the assembly and the members of the committee elected then in Katowice. This protocol is therefore extremely scarce, and it is impossible to obtain even in libraries; even Zionist bibliographers were unaware of it and did not mention it.” bound with: • איינע קורצע בעשרייבונג איבער אייניגע היסטארישע ארטער פון ארץ ישראל און איהרע זעלטענע דיינקמאלער (פאמיאטניקעס), by Yona Trubnik (based on Kalman Schulman). Published by Hovevei Zion, Zhitomir, Bradovitch Press, [1888]. Yiddish. Brief descriptions of historical sites and places in the Land of Israel, together with a description accompanied by statistical data concerning the new settlements established in the country. Extremely rare. Only two copies recorded in WorldCat of the Protocol of the Katowice Conference; only one copy recorded in WorldCat of the attached Yiddish work (copy held in the National Library). 40 pages; 40, 4 pages. 14.5 cm. Stains and light creases. Good condition.