7 - Seeking Zion, 1862–1874

Summary

EAGER to carry its message to a wide audience, and especially to persuade traditional Jews that its goals were legitimate, the Kolonisations-Verein für Palästina published Derishat tsiyon in 1862. This brought Kalischer international attention. Serving as a spokesman for the cause of promoting Jewish agricultural settlement in the Yishuv, he dedicated himself to a new form of promotional writing. He wrote extensively for the European Jewish press (which had just recently expanded into monthly and bi-monthly editions and was in need of contributors), solicited rabbis and prominent Jews for support and donations, publicly responded to his critics, and corresponded with anyone who questioned him about his ideas and projects. He added new sections to Derishat tsiyon for the German translation and the second Hebrew edition, both published in 1866. This literature is the focus of this chapter.

Achieving his goals in Palestine proved much harder than Kalischer had at first anticipated. When the Kolonisations-Verein für Palästina disbanded in 1864, Kalischer and his friend Elijah Guttmacher started the organization Hevrat Yishuv Erets Yisra'el and ran it from their homes in Thorn and Graditz. The goal of the organization was to buy land in Palestine suitable for agricultural colonies. They raised money themselves, and found agents in distant areas to seek out funds and establish regional offices. Running the organization proved to be an overwhelming task, and in 1866 they convinced the Alliance Israélite Universelle to serve as parent agency. After years of fund-raising there was still not enough to purchase an adequate piece of land upon which to establish an agricultural colony. Nevertheless, in 1873 Kalischer and Guttmacher instructed their agents in Frankfurt and Palestine to begin negotiations, and by the summer of 1874 they had acquired a small plot of land outside Jerusalem. Kalischer joyfully announced it in the papers, requesting donations from readers to pay for the last instalment. He died two months later, leaving his sons to complete the transaction.

The core principles of Kalischer's messianic ideology remained constant over the years. Derishat tsiyon was a mature, polished version of his 1836 letter to Rothschild. The many letters, newspaper articles, and pamphlets that followed further elaborated upon, embellished, and refined his earlier ideas.