ABSTRACT
The year 1881 marked two turning points in the history of the Yishuv: the beginning of the end of Eastern European Jewry, upon which Jerusalem's Jews were so dependent; and the rise of a "new" secular and nationalist Yishuv, heralded by the appearance in Jerusalem of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and, in Jaffa, of a small group of "First Aliya" settlers, the Biluim. The new czar's mentor, Konstantin Pobedonostsev, the anti-Semitic head of the Russian Orthodox church, emerged as the regime's chief ideologue. There is no nation without a land and without a language, without soil and without political rule. The Jews have a land—the Land of Israel, and a language—the Hebrew language, although they are in a state of half-life, half-death. Throughout this whole delicate period Bekhar displayed impressive political savvy. Study in Europe was necessary for any aspiring young member of the Yishuv simply because no suitable school existed in Jerusalem itself.
