Hovevei Zion

Hovevei Zion (Hebrew: חובבי ציון‎‎, lit. [Those who are] Lovers of Zion), also known as Hibbat Zion (Hebrew: חיבת ציון‎‎), refers to a variety of organizations which began in 1881 in response to the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire and were officially constituted as a group at a conference led by Leon Pinsker in 1884.

The organizations are now considered the forerunners and foundation-builders of modern Zionism. Many of the first groups were established in Eastern European countries in the early 1880s with the aim to promote Jewish immigration to Palestine, and advance Jewish settlement there, particularly agricultural. Most of them stayed away from politics.

Since the first centuries of the Common Era most Jews had lived outside the Land of Israel (Eretz Israel, known also as Palestine), although there had been a constant presence of Jews there as well. According to the Bible and Judaism, Eretz Israel was promised to the Jews by God. The Diaspora began in 586 BCE during the Babylonian occupation of Israel.

In 1850, Palestine had about 350,000 inhabitants. Roughly 85% were Muslims, 11% were Christians and 4% Jews.

In 1854, Judah Touro bequeathed money to fund Jewish residential settlement in Palestine. Sir Moses Montefiore was appointed executor of his will, and used the funds for a variety of projects, including building the first Jewish residential settlement and almshouse outside of the old walled city of Jerusalem in 1860, which is known today as Mishkenot Sha'ananim. Laurence Oliphant failed in a like attempt to bring to Palestine the Jewish proletariat of Poland, Lithuania, Romania, and the Turkish Empire (1879 and 1882).

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