Avraham Menahem Mendel Ussishkin
(1863 - 1941)
Born in Russia, Ussishkin became an enthusiastic reader of the works of contemporary Hebrew writers in his teens, and from then on the revival of the Hebrew language was one of the main goals of his life work. Like many other early Hibbat Zion members, he was shocked by the Russian pogroms of 1881, which emphasized to him the necessity for Jewish emigration. Ussishkin then began working actively for several Zionist groups. After graduating as a technical engineer from the Technological Institute in Moscow, he became active in Hebrew educational work as well as in Zionist propaganda and fund-raising in Russia.
Ussishkin was a "practical" Zionist who viewed agricultural settlement in Erez Israel as the first and most important step toward attaining a Jewish state. He was thus active in recruiting youth for pioneer work and for agricultural settlement of the land. He was a delegate to the First Zionist Congress held in Basle in 1893, and was appointed Hebrew secretary of the Congress. At the Seventh Zionist Congress (1905), he was among the leaders of those who forced the abandonment of the Uganda Scheme, and he then proposed a program of Zionism which was later adopted by the Zionist movement.
Under his influence the Zionist movement actively supported the establishment of agricultural settlements, educational and cultural institutions, and a Hebrew university. In 1919 Ussishkin himself settled in Erez Israel, and in 1923 he was chosen to head the Jewish National Fund, a position he held for nearly twenty years.
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