 |
The History of Habonim Dror (taken from 'The Little Book of Habo'
The Movement Habonim Dror was formed by the merger, in 1980, of Ichud
Habonim (An English Scouting Movement) and Dror (A Polish movement dedicated
to the continuation of Herzl's way)
Ichud Habonim
Habonim was founded in 1929 in Eastern London. At this point there was no
intention to develop a youth movement for pioneers. The founder, Wesley
Aaron, thought to develop an organisation of scouts that was developed on
the philosophy of National Judaism. Aaron's philosophy was extremely
successful because of his use of informal Jewish education as a methodology.
Three years later, the movement grew to 10,000 members, with branches not
only in Eastern London but also in the whole city.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, the membership of Habonim in
England was approximately 4000 members. During the same year, a camp was run
with 1400 participants, and according to all reports it was the biggest
Jewish camp in England. Together with this, Habonim advertised all its
membership in the national press. Another achievement was the Aliyah of 20
Bogrim to the Baltic English kibbutz Binyamina.
In 1936, due to much influence from the "Hechalutz" organisation, Habonim
began to hold their annual camps at a training farm, designed to educate the
Jewish youth towards a rural life in Israel. Afterwards the Friends of
Hachalutz Organisation brought a suggestion forward to the senior members of
Habonim to adopt pioneering as part of the movement's central ideology. This
was accepted with much debate.
Habonim Dror was established in South Africa at the end of the 1930s. In the
1950s Habonim had spread worldwide including Australia. World Habonim was
born in Haifa on September 1, 1951. The Ichud movement Veida took part of
the Habonim Movement from Britain, America, Canada, South Africa, New
Zealand, India, Holland and the combined movement from Israel. At the
committee representative from Habonim Australia were also present. Together,
they declared the birth of the world movement that was developed from the
combination of all the Habonim movements worldwide.
Dror
In 1911, in Poland, Jewish youth movements arose, they were organised into
movements according to different streams, for example Hashomer, Hachalutz.
Years later, after the Uganda Debate, and after the dismissal of Herzl, a
new generation rose in Zionism and developed into different divisions under
many different names, the most popular of which being Tzeirei Tzion (Young
Zionists). From Tzeirei Tzion, in Kiev, a group evolved who called
themselves the "time to build" and whose aim was to continue Herzl's way,
and out of this group developed the movement Dror.
Dror was established in 1915. It was not a mass movement, but it excelled in
Zionistic thought. The spiritual father of this group was Ze'ev Zlickin, who
was influenced by the teachings of the movement "Nadorobolchi", the movement
that gave rise to revolutionary Socialism in Russia. The first Veida took
place in 1918.
The Dror movement developed different chugim according to different ages.
The youth (under the age of 20) belonged to the Shichvah "El Hamishmar" for
all their lives as members of Dror. They were committed to the movement.
Dror educated them and brought them to the movement "Hachalutz Hatzair" and
through this movement they came to Eretz Israel and Kibbutz.
With the rise of the Nazi movement in Germany and the breakout of the Second
World War, these were the youth movements that acted against the Germans in
big uprisings, in cities such as Bialistock, Vilna, Warsaw and many other
cities throughout Europe. In Warsaw the Jewish fighter’s brigade together
with Hechalutz, Dror, Hashomer Hatzair and other youth movements fought
together in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943.
Graduates of Dror made Aliyah to Israel, fought as partisans and in the
Jewish brigade. The joined groups went to many kibbutzim throughout Israel.
This took place both before and after the development of the state of
Israel. In the 1940s there was major cooperation in the formation of common
garinim by the movements "Hechalutz" and "Habonim". In 1961 Dror was
established in England.
The Merger
The movement Ichud Habonim and the movement Dror were active in different
countries and each identified with a different stream of the kibbutz
movements. In 1952, the segmentation of the "Kibbutz Hameyuchad" movement
developed into a new kibbutz movement in Israel, "Ichud Hakibbutzim ve
hakvutzot". This movement combined the groups and kibbutzim and separated
from the Meyuchad kibbutz movement on an ideological basis. Whole families
were split, and the kibbutzim were divided in two, such as Ein Harod, Givat
Chaim, Ashdod Ya'akov and many more. The youth movement for Kibbutz Meyuchad
was Dror, and the youth movement from Ichud kibbutzim was Ichud Habonim.
In 1980, the reunification of the two kibbutz movements under one name, the"Takam", decided to combine the different movements under one name, "Habonim
Dror". Since then, the movement operates as one body and at each world Veida
challenges its way and redefines its activities to suit its ideology in the
Diaspora.
Habonim Dror is the largest youth movement of the Jewish youth in the
Diaspora. Each country has a national secretariat of its own that works in
cooperation with the secretariat of the world movement. Today there are more
than 15,000 Habonim Dror Chanichim spread out throughout the nations of the
world in the Diaspora:
Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, South Africa, Mexico, America, Canada, Zimbabwe, UK, France, Holland, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Ukraine, Russia, Fromer Soviet Union, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Belgium
Click here to view 'The Little Book of Habo'. |
