Manya Shochat

Manja Wilbuschewitsch / Wilbushewich Shochat (also: Mania Wilbuszewicz / Wilbuschewitz / Wilbushewich Schochet, * 1880 on the estate Lososna in Grodno, Russian Poland, now Belarus, † 1961 in Israel) was a leading Zionist of distinguished aristocratic family. Founded with her husband Israel Shochat and guided them the organization Hashomer.

Life

Manya Shochat left as a teenager of her wealthy father's house and traveled to America to raise money for the Chaluzim. In Paris and London, she has performed with Nordau and Zangwill, as well as with the leading Poale Zion in conjunction. Later she worked as a worker in the factory of her brother in Minsk to get to know the living conditions of the workers from their own experience. There, she got in contact with revolutionary circles and was arrested in the summer of 1899. In prison, she met the head of the Moscow secret police, Sergei Vasilyevich Zubatow (1864-1917) which is nearest to put his idea to establish a workers' movement, which should be loyal to the Tsar and would be supported by the police (so-called " police socialism " or Zubatowschtschina ). Zubatow argued that the establishment of a Jewish workers' party under a governmental protection, exclusively dedicated to professional and economic issues and refrain from political, anti-government activities would, would be a blessing for the Jewish masses and would for the Jews lead to an expansion of their civil rights. Under Zubatows influence, Manja Wilbuschewitsch involved in the establishment of the " Jewish Independent Workers' Party in the summer of 1901. Organized in this party workers and of them proclaimed strikes were initially successful because they could count on the support of agents of the Russian secret police. However, they faced resistance from the Bund and other Jewish socialist groups.

The change in government policy towards Zubatows projects and the influence of the pogrom of Kishinev in 1903, led the party in a hopeless situation, so that it dissolved itself in the summer of the same year. After a severe crisis Manja followed an invitation of her brother Nachum Wilbuschewitsch at the beginning of the year 1904 Eretz Israel, where she traveled the country for a year and came to the conclusion that a Jewish working class could only arise as a result of collective agricultural settlement. In 1907 she toured Europe and the United States to explore the conditions in various communist settlements. After her return, she stepped into the circle of Bar Giora members, which was led by Israel Shochat. Under their influence, the members settled on an estate in Sejera ( Ilanija ) and managed it on a collective basis. This was the first experiment of collective settlement in Eretz Israel.

In 1908 she married Israel Shochat and founded with him a year later Hashomer. In the organization, she became a senior figure. 1915 were exiled by the Turkish authorities after the Turkish city of Bursa she and her husband. 1919 both return to Palestine. 1921 visited Manja as a member of the first delegation of the newly formed Histadrut the United States. In the following years she devoted herself to the activities of the "workers' Battalion " ( Gedud ha - Avodah ) and worked, after the dissolution of the kibbutz Kfar Giladi. In 1930 she was among the founders of the League for Jewish-Arab friendship. In 1940, she joined the Mapam party, and settled in Tel Aviv. She published her memoirs in Divre Poalot ( " words of the workers ", 1930), Kovez ha - Shomer ( "Collection of Shomer ," 1937) and Sefer ha - Shomer ( "Book of Shomer, 1957).