Yechiel Tschlenow

Yehiel Yefim Vladimirovich Tschlenow (September 28, 1863, Russian Empire – January 31, 1918, United Kingdom) was a physician and a Zionist leader, who served for many years as the chairman of the congresses of the Zionists of Russia.

Biography Early life and education Yehiel Tschlenow was born into a Hasidic family in the city of Kremenchuk in the Poltava Governorate, then in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire. In 1876, as a boy, he moved with his family to Moscow, where he completed his high school education. After graduating from high school, he began studying medicine at Moscow University, graduating in 1888. During his studies, he became close to revolutionary movements in Russia and began to take an interest in the ideology of the Narodniks. After graduation, he began a medical career in Moscow.

Initial Zionist activity Following the pogroms of 1881, he left the Russian revolutionary circles and grew closer to the Hovevei Zion. Together with Menachem Ussishkin, he founded the first Zionist group in Moscow, and later in 1884, together with Rabbi Yaakov Mazeh and Pesach Marek, he founded the "Bnei Zion" (Sons of Zion) group. In 1897, he participated in the First Zionist Congress in Basel, and joined the Zionist movement.

Leader of Russian Zionists In 1902 he was the chairman of the Minsk Conference. At the Sixth Zionist Congress in 1903 he led the faction of Russian Zionists who opposed the Uganda Scheme, and along with 128 congress members, walked out of the plenum in protest against the acceptance of the plan. Against the plan, Tschlenow wrote several articles under the general title: "Zion and Africa". Yehiel served as chairman of the 3rd Congress of Russian Zionists in Helsinki from 1905 to 1907. The main plan discussed there was the mobilization of resources for purchasing land in Palestine.

He married Rebecca, daughter of Shalom Ratner. Her home was a meeting place and workspace for the center of Russian Zionism. After hesitations and delays, he yielded to the entreaties of Zionist leaders and moved, after the Eleventh Zionist Congress held in Vienna, to Berlin, where he had to travel without his family, who remained in Moscow. He stayed in Berlin until the outbreak of World War I, when he returned to his home in Moscow.

In senior Zionist roles At the General Zionist Congresses, Tschlenow was elected as a member of the Jewish Colonial Trust and as a member of the Jewish National Fund. By virtue of his new role, he visited Palestine between 1907 and 1909 and purchased land near the Sea of Galilee, where the agricultural settlement of Migdal was established. In the following years, he invested his efforts in writing about issues of education and the future development of Zionism, and also continued writing articles against the Uganda Scheme. Rebecca died in Tel Aviv on April 21, 1957.

The moshav Talmei Yehiel was named after him. In many cities in Israel streets were named after him, including in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Petah Tikva, Holon, and Rishon LeZion.

Selected writings Yehiel Tschlenow: Chapters of his life and activity, memoirs, writings, speeches, letters, Tel Aviv: Eretz Israel Publishing Press, 5697-1937 Palästina oder ein anderes Land? rede von E.W. Tschlenow auf dem VII. Zionisten-Kongress in Basel, 1905 (herausgegeben von der Zionistischen Propaganda-Kommission), Berlin: Verlag der ’Jüdischen Rundschau’, 1906. Эволюция политического сионизма и задачи текущего момента, Санкт-Петербу́рг, 1907. Fünf Jahre der Arbeit in Palästina [Five Years of Work in Palestine] / von E.W. Tschlenoff, Berlin: Jüdischer Verlag, 1913. Der Krieg, die russische Revolution und der Zionismus: Rede / von E.W.Tschlenow auf der Delegierten-Konferenz der russischen Zionisten in Petrograd, 1917 (hrsg. vom Kopenhagener Bureau der Zionistischen Organisation), Copenhagen: typ.M.Truelsen, 1917. La guerre, la révolution russe et le Sionisme: discours prononcé à la Conférence des sionistes russes, à Petrograd, le 24.mai-6. juin 1917, Copenhague: Bureau d’organisation sioniste, 1917.