Hashomer HatzairAlso transliterated Hashomer Hatsair or HaShomer HaTzair. (, ) is a Labor Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement founded in 1913 in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary. It was also the name of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party, the group's political party in the Yishuv in Mandatory Palestine.
Hashomer Hatzair, along with HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed of Israel, is a member of the International Falcon Movement – Socialist Educational International.
Early formation
Hashomer Hatzair came into being as a result of the merger of two groups, Hashomer ('The Guard'), a Zionist scouting group, and Ze'irei Zion ('The Youth of Zion'), which was an ideological circle that studied Zionism, socialism and Jewish history. Hashomer Hatzair is the oldest Zionist youth movement still in existence. Initially Marxist-Zionist, the movement was influenced by the ideas of Ber Borochov and Gustav Wyneken as well as Baden-Powell and the German Wandervogel movement. Hashomer Hatzair believed that the liberation of Jewish youth could be accomplished by aliyah (immigration; literally "ascent") to Palestine and living in kibbutzim. After the First World War the movement spread to Jewish communities throughout the world as a scouting movement.
Psychoanalysis was also an influence, partly through Siegfried Bernfeld; so was the philosopher Martin Buber. Otto Fenichel also supported Hashomer Hatzair's efforts to integrate Marxism with psychoanalysis. Hashomer Hatzair's educators sought to shape the image of the child from birth to maturity; some were aware of the work of the Soviet educator Anton Makarenko, who also propounded collectivist education.
Members of the movement settled in Mandatory Palestine as early as 1919. In 1927, the four kibbutzim founded by Hashomer Hatzair banded together to form the Kibbutz Artzi federation. The movement also formed a political party that shared the name Hashomer Hatzair, advocating a binational solution in mandatory Palestine with equality between Arabs and Jews. That is why, when a small group of Zionist leaders met in New York in May 1942 in the Biltmore Hotel, Hashomer Hatzair representatives voted against the so-called Biltmore Program.A portrait of Chomsky as a young Zionist. Noam Chomsky interviewed by Gabriel Matthew Schivone. New Voices, November 7, 2011.
In 1936, the kibbutz-based Hashomer Hatzair party launched an urban political party, the Socialist League of Palestine, which would represent non-kibbutzniks who shared the political approach of the members of Hashomer Hatzair kibbutzim and the youth movement in the political organizations of the Yishuv (as the Jewish community in Palestine was known). The Socialist League was the only Zionist political party within the Yishuv to accept Arab members as equals, support Arab rights, and call for a binational state in Palestine.Flisiak, Dominik (2021). Wybrane materiały ideologiczne i propagandowe Syjonistyczno-Socjalistycznej Partii Robotniczej Poalej Syjon-Hitachdut. Przyczynek do badań nad lewicą syjonistyczną w pierwszych latach powojennej Polski (1944/45-1949/50). [Selected ideological and propaganda materials of the Zionist-Socialist Workers' Party Poale Zion-Hitachdut. A contribution to research on the Zionist left in the first years of post-war Poland (1944/45-1949/50)]. Stara-Szuflada, Chrzan. p. 16. In Polish. In the 1930s, Hashomer Hatzair (along with Mapai) was affiliated with the centrist Marxist "Two-and-a-half" International, the International Revolutionary Marxist Centre (also known as the "London Bureau") rather than either the more mainstream socialist Labour and Socialist International or the Leninist Third International.Flisiak, Dominik (). Powstanie, rozwój i ideologia organizacji Haszomer Hacair działającej w II Rzeczypospolitej [The establishment, development and ideology of the Hashomer Hatzair organization operating in the Second Polish Republic]. Almanach Historyczny, No. 20 (2018), pp. 189-200. In Polish.
Growth and the Holocaust
By 1939, Hashomer Hatzair had 70,000 members worldwide. The movement's membership base was in Eastern Europe. With the advent of World War II and the Holocaust, members of Hashomer Hatzair focused their attention on resistance against the Nazis. Mordechai Anielewicz, the leader of Hashomer Hatzair's Warsaw (JCO) branch, became head of the Jewish Combat Organization and one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Due to ideological differences JCO declined to fight together with the Betar fighting group.Moshe Arens "Flags Over the Warsaw Ghetto: The Untold Story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising". Jerusalem: Gefen, 2011 Other members of the movement were involved in Jewish resistance and rescue in Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia. The leaders of Hashomer Hatzair in Romania were arrested and executed for antifascist activities. A personal account of the Holocaust, In the Mouth of the Wolf details the escape of Hashomer Hatzair member Rose Zar (née Ruszka Guterman) from the Piotrków Ghetto and hiding in plain sight, by working for the Wehrmacht and the SS.
The former head of Hashomer Hatzair in Łódź, Abraham Gancwajch,W. D. Rubinstein, The Left, the Right, and the Jews, Universe Books, 1982, , Google Print, p. 136. on the other hand, formed the Jewish Nazi collaboration network Group 13 (also known as the Jewish Gestapo) in December 1940,Israel Gutman, The Jews of Warsaw, 1939-1943: Ghetto, Underground, Revolt, Indiana University Press, 1982, , Google Print, p. 90–4. active in the Warsaw Ghetto. He was also the leader of the infamous Gestapo-sponsored, Nazi-collaborationist Jewish organisation Żagiew, which was formed in February 1943Tadeusz Piotrowski, Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918–1947, McFarland 1998, , Google Print, p. 66. at the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.Jerzy Ślaski, Jerzy Piesiewicz, Polska walcząca: 1939-1945, Published by Instytut Wydawniczy Pax, 1990; , 1055 pages.
After the war, the movement was involved in organizing illegal immigration of Jewish refugees to Palestine. Members were also involved in the Haganah military movement as well as in the leadership of the Palmach.
After World War II, the movement was largely Stalinist into the 1950s and in 1953 cancelled its Purim festivities due to Stalin's death. Support for Stalin and the Soviet Union began to wane in 1952 as a result of the Slánský trials which targeted Jewish leaders in the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in a series of show trials, and also resulted in the arrest, torture and four-and-a-half year imprisonment of Mapam official Mordechai Oren while he was visiting the country to intervene in support of two local Hashomer Hatzair members who had been arrested and falsely accused.
Present
Hashomer Hatzair continues as a youth movement based in Israel, and operates internationally. In Europe, North and Latin America, as well as in Australia, Hashomer Hatzair organizes activities and camps (machanot) for the youth. Activities are still ideological, but over time have been adapted to the needs of modern communities, vastly different from the context in which Hashomer Hatzair was created.
The movement has more than 7,000 members worldwide (excluding Israel) running weekly youth activities and camps in Germany, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, France, Belgium. Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Hungary, Bulgaria, Belarus, Ukraine, Australia and Poland.
Famous alumni include Evelyn Torton Beck, Arik Einstein, Dan Shechtman, Bella Abzug, Tony Cliff, Ehud Gazit, Ernest Mandel, Mordecai Anielewicz, Abraham Leon, Martin Monath, Benny Morris, Eliane Karp, Leopold Trepper, Amnon Linn, Zahara Rubin, Haviva Reik, Aaron Klug, Abba Hushi, Sam Spiegel, Irv Weinstein, Manès Sperber, Leon Rosselson, Juliana Rozestan, José Gurvich, Ilan Goldfajn,Joel Westheimer, Avi Levacov, Prisoner X (Ben Zygier), Milo Adler Gilles, Gila Martow, and even Isser Harel and Menachem Begin who were briefly members before joining Mapai and the right wing Betar respectively, as well as Kerem B'Yavneh's Rabbi Avraham Rivlin. Noam Chomsky sympathized with and worked with the group, although he was never a member.
While the United Kibbutz Movement and Kibbutz Artzi, Hashomer Hatzair and UKM's youth movement, Habonim Dror, have remained separate, although they have increasingly co-operated in various countries where they co-exist. However, the views of each movement on religion may be an obstacle to merger as Habonim Dror has a stronger identification with cultural Judaism as opposed to Hashomer Hatzair, which has been at times stridently secular and anti-religious — seeing itself as a leader of a legitimate expression of a secular stream of Judaism.
Argentina Once a huge movement inside the large Argentinian Jewish Community, Hashomer Hatzair Argentina suffered from decay common to all Zionist youth movements in Argentina during the last decades, as well as several military dictatorships in the country's history that directly or indirectly led to the closure of several of its kenim. The movement operates in Tzavta Centro Comunitario (Tzavta Community Center), in the neighborhood of Almagro, City of Buenos Aires. It is one of 9 Zionist Youth Movements in the city. It has around 120 members, running regular Saturday activities and secular Kabalat Shabat service, besides two machanot per year.
Australia The movement in Australia is located in Melbourne and was established in 1953 as a break away from Habonim Dror. There was briefly a ken (branch) in Sydney during the 1960s, but it closed due to a lack of members. Many of the original bogrim (leaders) of Australian Hashomer Hatzair settled in kibbutz Nirim. Its building in Melbourne is known as Beit Anielewicz, located in the suburb of St Kilda East. It runs weekly meetings as well as bi-annual camps which take place in the Australian countryside, during the summer and winter months. Hashomer Hatzair Australia is a member of the Australasian Zionist Youth Council (AZYC).
Currently, there are around 70 members of 'Hashy' Australia in Melbourne. Meetings for chanichim/ot (participants) from school years 3-12 are on Sunday afternoons and evenings. During Year 10 (age: 15–16) chanichim/ot undergo a 'hadracha' (leadership) course. This course is run by current bogrim/ot in the movement and teaches the chanichim/ot leadership skills which are used when they lead members of the Junior movement in Year 11. The current Year 11 madatzim/ot (leaders) are from the kvutzat (group) Negba.
All other 'Hashy' Australia members are situated in Byron Bay, where Madrachim/ot travel 3 times annually.
Hashomer Hatzair Australia has a strong belief that chanichim/ot should be active in the community, helping whenever they can. Members often go to rallies, actively pursue social justice locally and abroad, and run programs for disadvantaged children.
As with most of the kenim around the world, every year Hashy sends the chanichim/ot who have just completed school on a 10-month Shnat program in Israel. Hashy is an active part of the Hashomer Hatzair World Movement and regularly interacts with other kenim as well as other movements.
Austria
The Austrian Hashomer Hatzair traces its roots to the original Hashomer Hatzair founded in the Galicia region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Hashomer were among the earliest members of the Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund in 1914. They also founded the first ken. It holds around a hundred members, and meets weekly. The ken usually has five active kvutzots and one Bogrim kvutza. The ken has two machanot each year in the winter and summer and a couple of tijulim, every second year the oldest kvutzot the bogrim and the oldest kvutza go to machane Israel in which they attend the Seminar Tzofi or Tzofinodet.
Belgium