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Menahem Ussishkin-yertziet
Ivri Date: 11 Tishrei, 5702
English Date: 2 October, 1941
Avraham Menachem Mendel Ussishkin (1863-1941) was a notable Zionist leader.
Born in the Imperial Russia, Ussishkin graduated as a technical engineer from Moscow Technological Institute. He actively worked for the revival of the Hebrew language and Jewish settlement in Eretz Israel, then a province of the Ottoman Empire, and was a member of Hibbat Zion movement.
He served as Hebrew Secretary at the First Zionist Congress. He was one of the leaders who forced the abandonment of the Uganda plan.
In his pamphlet "Our Program" he advocated group settlement based on labour Zionism. Under his influence the Zionist movement actively supported the establishment of agricultural settlements, educational and cultural institutions, and a Hebrew university. In 1919, Ussishkin himself settled in the Land of Israel, and in 1923 he was elected President of the Jewish National Fund which he headed until his death.
Ussishkin was the force behind large land acquisitions in Emek Hefer and in the Jezreel and Beit She'an valleys.