Beginning with 1884, the baron, pursuing purely philanthropic aims, gave his support to the colonies, spending enormous sums on cultivating in them the higher forms of agriculture, particularly wine-growing.  Gradually, the baron became the actual owner of a majority of the colonies which were administered by his appointees, and most of the colonists were reduced to the level of laborers or tenants who were entirely in the hands of the baron’s administration.  This state of affairs was unquestionably humiliating and almost too hard to bear for men who had dreamed of a free life in the Holy Land.  Yet there can be no doubt that under the conditions prevailing at the time the continued existence of the colonies was only made possible through the liberal assistance which came from the outside.

The progress of the Palestinian colonization, slow though it was, provided a concrete basis for the doctrines preached by the “Lovers of Zion” in Russia.  The propaganda of these Hobebe Zion—­the Hebrew equivalent for “Lovers of Zion”—­who acknowledged as their leaders the first exponents of the territorial restoration of Jewry, Pinsker and Lilienblum, led to the organization of a number of societies in various cities.  Towards the end of 1884 the delegates of these societies met at a conference in the Prussian border-town Kattowitz, such a conference being impossible in Russia, in view of the danger of police interference.  On that occasion a fund was established under the name of Mazkeret Moshe, “A Memorial to Moses,” in honor of the English philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore, whose hundredth birthday was celebrated in that year.  The fund, which formed the main channel for all donations in favor of the Palestinian colonies, was administered by the two Hobebe Zion centers in Odessa and Warsaw.  The movement which had been called into life by representatives of the intelligenzia succeeded in winning over several champions of rabbinical orthodoxy, among them Samuel Mohilever, the well known rabbi of Bialystok; their affiliation with the new party was largely instrumental in weakening the opposition of the orthodox masses which were inclined to look upon this political movement as a rival of the traditional Messianic idea of Judaism.  The lack of governmental sanction hampered the Hobebe Zion societies in Russia in their activities, and the funds at their disposal were barely sufficient for the upkeep of one or two colonies in Palestine.  Realizing this, the conference of the “Lovers of Zion” which met at Druskeniki [1] in 1887 decided to apply to the Russian Government for the legalization of the Hobebe Zion organization, a consummation which was realized a few years later, in 1890.

[Footnote 1:  A watering-place in the government of Grodno.]