JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

In 1921 Belkin became director of the *Jewish Colonization
Association. The JCA was founded in 1906 as the Canadian
wing of Baron Maurice de *Hirsch’s effort to resettle displaced
East European Jews on agricultural lands in the New World.
Although several such Canadian rural colonies predate the
JCA, most were organized by the JCA. All these efforts eventually
failed. By the end of World War II, most Jewish farm
settlements were being abandoned as farmers moved to cities.
Belkin left the employment of the organization in 1954.
Belkin turned to chronicling the Canadian Jewish experience.
In 1956 he published his benchmark study of the
Labor-Zionist movement in Canada entitled Di Poale-Zion
Bavegung in Kanade (1904–1920), which served to establish
his reputation as a leading researcher in the field of Jewish
Canadiana. To this day this work has not been surpassed in
scope or in the thoroughness of its documentation. Belkin
also wrote an important study on Canadian Jewish immigration
history entitled Through Narrow Gates (1966). Belkin retired
to California.
[Pierre Anctil (2nd ed.)]
BELKIND, Ereẓ Israel family of the First *Aliyah.
Meir Belkind (1827–1898), one of the first teachers of the
modern Hebrew school system in Ereẓ Israel, was born in Logoisk,
Belorussia, and followed his sons, Israel and Shimshon,
to Ereẓ Israel at the beginning of the 1880s. He settled first in
Jaffa and later in *Gederah, where he served as rabbi for the
new settlers. Although a traditional Jew himself, he defended
the *Bilu’im against the attacks of the religious zealots. When
his son Israel established the first Hebrew school in Jaffa in
1889, Belkind became its teacher for religious subjects, thus
molding the method of religious instruction in the modern
schools of Ereẓ Israel.
israel (1861–1929), one of the founders of Bilu, was
born in Logoisk. In 1882, while studying at Kharkov University,
he was among the students who founded the Bilu movement
and went to Ereẓ Israel at the head of its first group. He
led the opposition against Baron Edmond de *Rothschild’s officials
and, on being expelled by them from Rishon le-Zion,
settled in Gederah. In 1889 Belkind opened a private Hebrew
school in Jaffa. He was accepted as a teacher at the *Alliance
Israélite Universelle in Jerusalem in 1892, and there published
several textbooks. In 1903 he founded an agricultural training
school at Shefeyah (near Zikhron Ya’akov) for orphans of the
Kishinev pogroms whom he brought to Ereẓ Israel. However,
the school was forced to close down in 1906 because of lack of
funds. During World War I Belkind resided in the U.S., where
he published his memoirs in Yiddish, Di Ershte Shrit fun Yishuv
Erets Yisroel (“The First Steps of the Jewish Settlement
of Palestine,” 1918).
Apart from numerous articles and popular pamphlets,
Belkind published a geography of Palestine, Ereẓ Yisrael ba-
Zeman ha-Zeh (“The Land of Israel Today,” 1928). He died in
Berlin, where he had gone for medical treatment. His remains
were interred in Rishon le-Zion.
BELKIND FAMILY
Meir Belkind
Hebrew teacher
1827–1898
Aaron Mordecai
Freiman
1846–1925
came to Israel 1882
Olga
1852–1943
Yehoshua *Ḥankin
1864–1946
Fania
1855–1942
came to Israel 1883
Israel *Feinberg
1865–1912
Alexandra
(Sonia)
Physician
1858–1943
Menaḥem Ḥankin
1868–1937
Israel
1861–1929
came to Israel 1882
Shimshon
1864–1937
came to Israel 1883
shimshon (1864–1937), a Bilu pioneer, was born in Logoisk.
He joined the Bilu movement in Russia and settled in
Ereẓ Israel in 1883. He worked at various crafts in Jerusalem,
Mikveh Israel, and Rishon le-Zion, and in 1888 moved to Gederah,
where he was a farmer. His sons Na’aman and Eytan
were members of *Nili.
na’aman (1889–1917) was a member of Nili and was executed
by the Turks. He was employed in the Rishon le-Zion
wine cellars, where he came into contact with visiting Turkish
officers. He joined Nili together with his cousin Avshalom
*Feinberg. In September 1917, while attempting to reach
Egypt to investigate the circumstances of Feinberg’s death, he
was caught by Bedouin who handed him over to the Turkish
authorities. He was taken to Damascus, tried, convicted for
spying, and hanged in the winter of 1917, together with Yosef
*Lishansky. He was later buried in Rishon le-Zion.
Bibliography: D. Idelovitch (ed.), Rishon le-Ẓiyyon (1941),
76–81; M. Smilansky, Mishpaḥat ha-Adamah, 2 (1944), 128–32; A.
Yaari, Goodly Heritage (1958), index; A. Engle, Nili Spies (1959), index.
[Yehuda Slutsky]
BELKOWSKY, ẒEVI HIRSCH (Grigori; 1865–1948), Zionist
leader and jurist. Belkowsky was born in Odessa, where his
father died of wounds received during the 1881 pogroms. He
was admitted to a Russian high school and graduated cum
laude from the University of Odessa law school. He was offered
a post at the university on the condition that he convert
to Christianity. He refused and became a lecturer and later
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 297
Penina
belkowsky, Ẓevi hirsch
Avshalom
*Feinberg
1889–1917
2 dtrs
Na’aman
member of Nili
1889–1917
Eytan
member of Nili
b. 1897
Meir
1904–1936