Hashomer Hatzair
- Hashomer Hatzair UK is the UK branch of the Hashomer Hatzair World Movement, the youth movement of Meretz UK, part of the World Union of Meretz of which the Israel based political party is Meretz
Affiliations
- Kibbutz Artzi : Kibbutz Gal On | Kibbutz Nirim | Kibbutz Shoval
- Mapam
- Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party
- 11 Points in the Negev
People
Members
Pinchas Abramovich | Shulamit Aloni | Tosia Altman | Moshe Amar | Mordechai Anielewicz | Reuven Arazi | Menachem Bader | Yohanan Bader | Aryeh Bahir | Dov Bar-Nir | Shulamit Bat-Dori | Herbert Baum | Yitzhak Ben-Aharon | Mordechai Bentov | Chasia Bornstein-Bielicka | Peter Buch | Phyllis Chesler | Shalom Cohen (politician) | Elias Davidsson | Latif Dori | Aharon Efrat | Hussein Faris | Naftali Feder | Dov Feigin | Naomi Frankel | Isabel Frey | Yisrael Friedman (Pashkaner Rebbe) | Mira Fuchrer | Abraham Gancwajch | Ya'akov Gil (politician born 1931) | Haika Grossman | Michael Harsgor | Ya'akov Hazan | David Horowitz (economist) | Abba Hushi | Yeshayahu Jelínek | Amos Kenan | Chajka Klinger | Itzik Kol | Žamila Kolonomos | Rozka Korczak | Hannah Lamdan | Abraham Leon | Oded Lifshitz | Amnon Linn | Hildegard Löwy | Zvi Lurie | Judith Maro | Yeruham Meshel | Martin Monath | Avraham Mor | Kidnapping of Gadi Moses | Mordechai Oren | Sheffi Paz | Natan Peled | Eliezer Peri | Karl Pfeifer | Jacob Pinkerfield | Zofia Poznańska | Ya'akov Riftin | Roza Robota | Eliezer Ronen | Miriam Roth | Lothar Salinger | Yosef Shofman | Yehezkel Streichman | Emma Talmi | Meir Talmi | Benjamin Tene | Leopold Trepper | Esther Vilenska | Meir Vilner | Muhammed Wattad | Munio Weinraub | Moshe Wertman | Izrael Chaim Wilner | Meir Ya'ari | Yitzhak Suknik | Yeruham Zeisel | Rachel Zilberberg
Associated
- Tony Benn | Greg Philo
- Bernie Sanders: The U.S. Senator and democratic socialist volunteered for several months in 1963 at Kibbutz Sha'ar HaAmakim. He traveled to Israel specifically as a guest of the Hashomer Hatzair movement.[1]
- Noam Chomsky: The world-renowned linguist, anarchist, and left-wing activist heavily sympathized and worked with Hashomer Hatzair in his youth, though he never officially became a member. In 1953, he and his wife spent time living and working at Kibbutz HaZore'a, a kibbutz co-founded by the movement.[2]
- Bella Abzug: The influential American feminist, civil rights lawyer, and left-wing U.S. Representative was a leader in the primary North American branch of Hashomer Hatzair during her youth.[3]
- Tony Cliff (Ygael Gluckstein) and his wife Chanie Rosenberg[4]: The prominent British Trotskyist intellectual and founder of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) was raised in Palestine and was an active member of Hashomer Hatzair before breaking away to embrace revolutionary Marxism and anti-Zionism.[5]
- Ernest Mandel: The famous Belgian Marxist theoretician, economist, and a primary leader of the Trotskyist Fourth International was a member of Hashomer Hatzair in his youth.
- Oliver Sacks: The renowned British neurologist, leftist thinker, and author spent the summer of 1955 working at Kibbutz Ein HaShofet, which was established by North American and European Hashomer Hatzair graduates.
- Abraham Leon: The Belgian Jewish Marxist theoretician, famous for writing The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation, was a major leader of Hashomer Hatzair in Belgium before converting to Trotskyism during World War II.
- Martin Monath: A German Jewish socialist who was a member of the movement before moving to Belgium and France, where he organized high-level Trotskyist resistance against the Nazi occupation.
- Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir: The iconic French existentialist philosophers visited Israel in 1967 and toured Kibbutz Lehavot HaBashan, engaging extensively with French-speaking members of the socialist kibbutz.
- Manès Sperber: The Austrian-French novelist, psychologist, and prominent left-wing intellectual was deeply involved with the movement in his earlier years.
List of Hashomer Hatzair kibbutzim
The Hashomer Hatzair youth movement, through its associated Kibbutz Artzi federation (founded 1927), established approximately 75–85 kibbutzim in Mandatory Palestine and Israel.[6][7]
Notable kibbutzim founded or closely associated with the movement include:
- Ein HaShofet
- Kfar Menachem
- Hazorea
- Sasa
- Barkai
- Gal'on
- Nachshon
- Lahav
- Shomrat
- Harel
- Gvulot
- Adamit
- Negba
- Hanita
- Sha'ar HaAmakim
- HaZore'a
- Lehavot HaBashan
- Gan Shmuel
- Mishmar HaEmek
- Ma'abarot
- Merhavia
- Ein Shemer
Many of these were established in the 1920s–1950s by graduates of the movement from Europe and North America and formed the core of the Kibbutz Artzi federation, which later merged into the broader Kibbutz Movement.[8]
Resources
- Beinin, J. (1990). Was the Red Flag Flying There? Marxist Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in Eqypt and Israel 1948-1965. Univ of California Press.
- Cohen, I. (1945). The Zionist movement. London: Frederick Muller.
- Leon, D. (1969). The kibbutz: A new way of life. Elsevier.
- Lockman, Z. (1976). The left in Israel: Zionism vs. socialism. MERIP Reports, (49), 3-18.
- Schulman, J. (2003). The life and death of socialist Zionism. New Politics, 9(3), 127-137.
Notes
- ↑ Yossi Melman, Mystery solved: Sanders volunteered at kibbutz Shaar HaAmakim Jewish Telegraphic Agency, February 5, 2016.
- ↑ Noam Chomsky, A portrait of Chomsky as a young Zionist Chomsky.info, November 7, 2011.
- ↑ Bella Abzug, Bella Abzug Wikipedia, accessed May 2026 (citing her early membership in Hashomer Hatzair).
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/sep/07/chanie-rosenberg-obituary
- ↑ Tony Cliff, Tony Cliff: A World to Win Marxists.org, 2000 (detailing early Hashomer Hatzair involvement).
- ↑ Hashomer Hatzair, Hashomer Hatzair Wikipedia, accessed May 2026.
- ↑ Kibbutz Movement, Kibbutz Artzi Wikipedia, accessed May 2026.
- ↑ History of Hashomer Hatzair USA, History of Hashomer Hatzair USA Camp Shomria, December 25, 2022.