Manya Shochat

Manya Shochat
Born	1880 Belarus
Died	1961

Manya Shochat (1880–1961) was a Belarusian-Jewish politician and the "mother" of the collective settlement in Palestine, the forerunner of the kibbutz movement.

Manya Wilbushewitch (also Mania, Wilbuszewicz/Wilbushewitz; later Shochat) was born in the Grodno Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus) to middle-class Jewish parents, and grew up on the family estate of "Łosośna". One brother, Isaac, studied agriculture in Russia. He was expelled for slapping a professor who, in the course of a lecture, stated that the zhids (a derogatory term for Jews) were sucking the blood of the farmers in Ukraine. In late 1882, he left for Palestine and joined the Bilu movement. His letters home were a powerful influence on young Manya. Another brother, the engineer Gedaliah, went there in 1892, and helped fund his younger siblings' education. As a young adult, she went to work in her brother's factory in Minsk to learn about working class conditions. She was imprisoned because of her contacts with Bund revolutionaries in 1899. There she was indoctrinated by Sergey Zubatov, the head of the Tsarist Secret Police in Moscow. Zubatov conceived a plan that fit with Shochat's ideological notions, through which workers would form "tame" organizations that would work for reform rather than for overthrow of the government. She was persuaded that this would also help achieve rights for Jews. She founded the Jewish Independent Labor Party. The party was successful in leading strikes because the secret police supported it, but was loathed by the Bund and other Jewish socialist groups. The party collapsed in 1903 following the Kishinev pogrom. Experiencing, as she put it, 'severe emotional distress' following the loss and failure of her political organization and path, she accepted an invitation from her brother Nachum, who was the founder of the Shemen soap factory, to accompany him on a research expedition to some of the wilder places of Palestine. She arrived on January 2, 1904.
"I couldn't see what direction I should take in my life. I agreed to join my brother's expedition, because, in fact, I was indifferent to everything. For me it was just another adventure." Manya fell in love with the beauty of the land and was especially touched by the plight of the Jewish settlement in the Hauran. "The Hauran remained without a redeemer - and my soul cleaved unto this place."
Baron Edmond de Rothschild had bought land in the area, but the Ottoman government stipulated that no Jews be allowed to settle there. A small group which had disregarded the decision was evicted, so the Baron resorted to leasing out the plots of land to Arab Fellahin. Manya decided to visit all of the Baron's colonies and see for herself why they were in financial straits. She became acquainted with and greatly impressed by Yehoshua and Olga Hankin. Her decision to stay was due in a large part to their influence.

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