The ideological test of Ahad Ha‘am: the struggle over the character of Bnei Moshe

Abstract

Zionist historiography and historical scholarship typically portray Bnei Moshe as a secret order, consisting of a homogenous group of young intellectuals who zealously espoused the national cultural-Zionist world-view and doctrine of their leader and mentor Ahad Ha‘am. In this article I establish that this group – whose prominent members included well-known figures such as Haim Nahman Bialik, Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, Elhanan Levinsky, Chaim Weizmann, Meir Dizengoff, and others – was actually plagued by deep ideological rifts, with some of its members pushing for the adoption of the national religious values associated with Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever, and others viewing the order as an elitist branch of the Hibat Tsiyon movement and its successor organization, the Odessa Committee, led by Moshe Leib Lilienblum and Leon Pinsker. Only after a protracted struggle did the group ultimately accept Ahad Ha‘am’s position and world-view.