Shlomo Lavi ( he, שלמה לביא, born Shlomo Levkovich in 1882, died 23 July 1963) was a
Zionist
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
(today in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
), Lavi received a religious education. While growing up in Plonsk, Shlomo Lavi and David Grün (the future founding father of Israel,
David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the name ...
) were both members of the
Ezra
Ezra (; he, עֶזְרָא, '; fl. 480–440 BCE), also called Ezra the Scribe (, ') and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra, was a Jewish scribe (''sofer'') and priest (''kohen''). In Greco-Latin Ezra is called Esdras ( grc-gre, Ἔσδρας ...
youth movement and together taught
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
lessons and Hebrew to poor and orphaned children.
Zionist activity
In 1905 he made
aliyah
Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the Israel, State of Israel ...
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
Hapoel Hatzair
Hapoel Hatzair ( he, הפועל הצעיר, "The Young Worker") was a Zionist group active in Palestine from 1905 until 1930. It was founded by A.D. Gordon, Yosef Aharonovich, Yosef Sprinzak and followed a non-Marxist, Zionist, socialist agenda ...
.
Lavi worked as an agricultural laborer in
Petach-Tikva
Petah Tikva ( he, פֶּתַח תִּקְוָה, , ), also known as ''Em HaMoshavot'' (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of ...
, in an
olive oil
Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: f ...
factory in
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
, then at the recommendation of
Arthur Ruppin
Arthur Ruppin (1 March 1876 – 1 January 1943) was a German Zionist proponent of pseudoscientific race theory and one of the founders of the city of Tel Aviv.Todd Samuel Presner, ’German Jewish Studies in the Digital Age:Remarks on Discipline ...
as farm manager in Hulda, and together with David Ben-Gurion at
Sejera
Ilaniya ( he, אִילָנִיָּה) is a moshav in northern Israel. Also known as Sejera, after the adjacent Arab village al-Shajara, it was the first Jewish settlement in the Lower Galilee and played an important role in the Jewish settlement o ...
.
Lavi was involved in the establishment of the Jewish defence organisation Hashomer (1909-1920), which he joined as a watchman in the
Galilee
Galilee (; he, הַגָּלִיל, hagGālīl; ar, الجليل, al-jalīl) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Galil ...
, in
Hedera
''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa an ...
and
Rehovot
Rehovot ( he, רְחוֹבוֹת ''Rəḥōvōt'', ar, رحوڤوت ''Reḥūfūt'') is a city in the Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of .
Etymology
Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu movement, ...
.
Later on he joined the founders of
Kvutzat Kinneret
Kvutzat Kinneret ( he, קְבוּצַת כִּנֶּרֶת), also known as Kibbutz Kinneret, is a kibbutz in northern Israel. The settlement group ('' kvutza'') was established in 1913, and moved from the Kinneret training farm to the permanent lo ...
, where he worked at reclaiming marshlands.
Lavi was throughout his life a dedicated member of the Zionist Labour movement and one of its ideologists. Mati Alon, ''Holocaust and Redemption'', pp. 62-63. Trafford Publishing, 2004, Berl Katznelson, one of the founders of Labour Zionism in pre-state Israel, described Lavi as one of the "First Ten" founders of the movement. He became one of the leaders and ideologists of
Ahdut HaAvoda
Ahdut HaAvoda ( he, אַחְדוּת הַעֲבוֹדָה, lit. ''Labour Unity'') was the name used by a series of political parties. Ahdut HaAvoda in its first incarnation was led by David Ben-Gurion. It was first established during the period ...
, and later co-founded
Mapai
Mapai ( he, מַפָּא"י, an acronym for , ''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael'', lit. "Workers' Party of the Land of Israel") was a democratic socialist political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger in ...
.
In 1920, he was among the founders of the
Histadrut
Histadrut, or the General Organization of Workers in Israel, originally ( he, ההסתדרות הכללית של העובדים בארץ ישראל, ''HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael''), is Israel's national trade union center ...
trade union.
In the wake of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, a large influx of Jewish immigrants from the former Russian Empire was to be expected and Lavi looked for ways to prepare for their arrival, both in terms of housing and working places. In this context, Lavi became the originator of the idea of the larger communal settlement, the
kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
, as opposed to the smaller
kvutza
Kvutza, kevutza or kevutzah ( "group") is a communal settlement among Jews, primarily in pre-state Israel, the word was used in reference to communal life. First there were ''kvutzot'' (plural of kvutza) in the sense of groups of young people with ...
preferred by earlier pioneers; in 1921 he helped establish the first such settlement, Kibbutz
Ein Harod
Ein Harod ( he, עֵין חֲרוֹד) was a kibbutz in northern Israel near Mount Gilboa. Founded in 1921, it became the center of Mandatory Palestine's kibbutz movement, hosting the headquarters of the largest kibbutz organisation, HaKibbutz H ...
. Here he lived and worked for the rest of his life.
Lavi participated as a delegate in the 12th, 17th, 18th and 19th Zionist Congresses, held in 1921, 1931, 1933 and 1935, respectively.
A member of the
Haganah
Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the ...
underground militia, during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
he joined the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
at the age of 60.
Both sons of Shlomo Lavi, Yerubaal and Hillel, were killed during
1948 Arab–Israeli War
The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...
, as was his brother Hillel.
In 1949, Lavi was elected to the
first Knesset
Constituent Assembly elections were held in newly independent Israel on 25 January 1949. Voter turnout was 86.9%. Two days after its first meeting on 14 February 1949, legislators voted to change the name of the body to the Knesset (Hebrew: כ ...
on the Mapai party list. He was re-elected in
1951
Events
January
* January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
* January 9 – The Government of the United ...
, but lost his seat in the 1955 elections. As a lawmaker he proposed the nationalisation of the various health and medical care programmes.
A 1926 separation between two
Harod Valley
The Harod Valley ( he, עמק חרוד, Emek Harod) is a valley in the Northern District of Israel. It is the eastern part of the Jezreel Valley,a transitional zone that extends to the Beit She'an Valley. From south it locked by Mount Gilboa and ...
kibbutzim, Tel Yosef and Lavi's Ein Harod, was not to Lavi's liking, but it was nothing compared to the breakup of Kibbutz Ein Harod itself, during the sometimes violent split of the Kibbutz Movement of 1952 into the Ahdut HaAvoda/Mapai-affiliated, center-left "
Ihud
Ihud ( he, איחוד, 'Unity') was a small binationalist Zionist political party founded by Judah Leon Magnes, Martin Buber, Ernst Simon and Henrietta Szold, former supporters of Brit Shalom, in 1942Mapam's more Marxist-oriented " Meuhad" branch, which deeply affected Lavi.
Late years
Shlomo Lavi spent the late years of his life in Ein Harod, finishing his last book and working in his garden. He died in 1963 and was buried in Ein Harod's Old Cemetery, at the foot of
Mount Gilboa
Mount Gilboa ( he, הַר הַגִּלְבֹּעַ, translit=Har hagGīlbōaʿ ; ar, جبل جلبوع ''Jabal Jarbūʿ'' or ''Jabal Fuqqāʿa''), sometimes referred to as the Mountains of Gilboa, is the name for a mountain range in Israel. It ...
, next to his wife Rachel and his two sons. He was survived by his daughter, Ilana (born 1926).
Works
* ''Igrot Hillel'' ("The Letters of Hillel")
* ''HaKvutzah HaGdolah'' ("The Large Kvutza", or group, a synonym for "kibbutz")
* ''Kinat Av'' ("Mourning of A Father")
* ''Megilati b'Ein Harod'' ("My Story in Ein Harod")
* ''Zimunei Haim'' ("Availability in Life")
* ''Ktavim Nivharim'' ("Selected Articles")
* ''Maarahot'' ("Battles")
* ''Alilato Shel Shlomo Laish'' ("The Story of Shlomo Laish")