Page 38 - Balfour100-E

38 Responding to the Declaration Preparations ✡

The Zionist movement was motivated by rising anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish

pogroms in Eastern Europe. This is how residents of one village in Poland

reacted to news of the Balfour Declaration

Sokółka celebrates the Declaration

okółka was well known as a bastion of Zionism. ours – a white hat with a blue
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From time to time a Zionist propaganda special- band, white trousers and a
S ist would appear in town and deliver a speech as blue shirt – as an expression
a delegate of the province’s central Zionist committee. of love of the Zionist flag
He would deliver his speech in the synagogue in front of the Land of Israel. The
of the Ark, and the Zionist message penetrated deep blue-and-white flag with the
into the hearts of Sokółka’s Jews. Star of David in the centre
was raised on the clubhouse
No words can describe suppressed, a target for con- of the ‘Young Zionists’ and
the soul-uplifting feeling and tempt and ridicule among ‘Ha-Mercaz’ , which was Malka and Yisrael Lipczer
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raised spirits that gripped the nations who saw them as located in Itzik Eisen’s house led ‘Ha-Mercaz’ in Sokółka
the Jews of Sokółka when a scapegoat, suddenly stood in Białystok Street.
they heard the good news of up straighter. There the group crushed
the Balfour Declaration. The When rumours of the together and the one topic of
Land of Israel for the Jewish Declaration arrived, the conversation was the Balfour
people! The Jews of Russia Zionist youth of the town Declaration. The Zionist
and Poland, downtrodden, dressed up in the Zionist col- Federation in Sokółka turned
the event into a massive
national festival, declaring
it a work-free day: the shops
closed, the artisans stopped soul-stirring enthusiasm. The
working, and the wagon synagogue was full from wall
drivers rested their horses. to wall: artisans, shopkeepers
The Jews congregated in and just ordinary Jews ran to
the synagogues for a great hear about ‘the Land of Israel’.
national gathering. The Everyone listened, tense with
schoolchildren together with excitement and faith, to the
their parents appeared in lofty and wonderful hopes
military rows of four wearing for a restoration of the people
home-made coloured hats, within the Land of Israel.
fashioned by the children The dream then of every
themselves. David-Yitzhak Jew was to immigrate to
and his orchestra claimed a Palestine and live there. And
place on the Bimah of the
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synagogue playing national- when the gates of Palestine
opened, the youth of Sokółka
ist songs. And all present
split the air with their raised left their parents and their
parents’ homes and immi-
voices and inexhaustible
excitement. grated to Palestine to become
ground-breaking pioneers.
The biggest excitement
came with the singing of
Hatikvah (The Hope) – “To Extracted from http://israel-
forever.org/israel/celebrating/
return to the Land of our sokolka_russia_balfour/
Fathers” – the dream of every 1. Pronounced S’kawka
Jew. 2. The Jewish Centre
The meeting opened with 3. The reading platform in the
a speech by the great leader synagogue
of ‘Ha-Mercaz’ in Sokółka, 4. The Hebrew letters are an
abbreviation of ZICHRONO
Yisrael Lipczer ( ) , who LIVRAKHA, meaning ‘Of
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spoke with excitement and Blessed Memory’