Yehoshua Barzillai

Yehoshua Barzilai
Born	Yehoshua Eisenstadt August 20, 1855 Navahrudak, Belarus
Died	May 2, 1918 (aged 62) Lausen, Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland
Occupation	Founder of b'nei moshe
Known for	Leader of Hovevei Zion

Yehoshua Barzilai-Eisenstadt (August 20, 1855 – May 2, 1918) was an early Zionist leader and writer. He was one of the founders of the covert B'nei Moshe organization, and a leader of the Hovevei Zion movement.

Yehoshua Barzillai

Biography

Barzillai was born in Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire, to a rabbinical family. At a young age, he became one of the first members of Hovevei Zion.

In 1881, he immigrated to Ottoman Palestine but returned to Russia a year later. There, he co-founded the secret organization B'nei Moshe, which aimed to establish leaders in Am Yisrael and the realization of its political resurrection in the Land of Israel.

In 1890, Barzilai returned to Ottoman Palestine with the founding members of B'nei Moshe. He worked at the Anglo-Palestine Bank (Bank Leumi), from which he was dismissed for prioritizing Zionist principles over strict commercial caution. He also served as secretary for Hovevei Zion in Jaffa, traveling extensively across the new settlements in the Land of Israel and becoming a key contact for pioneers' inquiries. From 1894 to 1895, he was the head librarian at Beit Ariela. Shortly after returning to Israel, he moved to Jerusalem.

Barzilai was a prolific poet and writer, known for his romantic short stories about life in the Land of Israel, many of which were published in Eliezer Ben-Yehuda's newspaper, HaZvi. He also published a magazine, "Letters from the Land of Israel," which was distributed among Bnei Moshe members in Russia from 1893 to 1895. He often dated his letters according to the Jewish calendar and used pen names such as "Beit Halevi" and "Bar-Lee".

Barzilai at the HeHalutz garden plot with the American Delegation headed by Henry Morgenthau Sr. (Standing, first row from the bottom, third from the left)

He was a close friend and ally of Menachem Ussishkin, supporting him in his opposition to the Uganda Program, resisting Baron Edmond James de Rothschild’s interventions in the colonies, advocating for the elevation of Jerusalem's significance in Zionist thought, and promoting the adoption of Hebrew as an official national language. His correspondence with Ussishkin, spanning many years, provides a crucial record of the crises and struggles faced during the first wave of immigration, primarily from 1900 to 1911.

Together with Ussishkin, he founded the "Hovevei Jerusalem" association to promote Jewish settlement in Jerusalem, collaborating with figures such as Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, Kadish Silman, David Yellin, Boris Schatz, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, and Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi, among others.

He also conducted research on the social composition of Jerusalem's population at the time and worked to improve living conditions through employment initiatives.

Statue of Barzilai at the Histadrut building in Tel Aviv

Among his many accomplishments was co-founding the Rehavia Gymnasium in Jerusalem, Israel's first modern high school.

Death

During World War I, like many early immigrants, he was forced to leave the country and relocated to Switzerland, where he died in 1918. Seven years later, his remains were interred on the Mount of Olives.