The Helsingfors Program

Third All-Russian Zionist Conference

1906

Recognizing that the organization of the Jewish people for the purpose of independent national action constitutes, in accordance with the second clause of the Basel Program,1 one of the most important means for securing the goals of Zionism by strengthening the Jewish people in Exile and by providing new cultural, material, and political means in the struggle to create a normal national life in the Land of Israel; recognizing, in addition, that in the countries of Exile national organizations can develop only on condition that they are recognized by the state, something that is possible only if these counties have a democratic political system—the Third Conference approves the natural affiliation of the Zionist masses with the liberation movement of the territorial nations of Russia,2 and considers it vital, against the background of the changes occurring in the state administration of Russia, to ensure the unity of Russian Jewry in order to secure recognition of Jewish nationhood and their legally recognized autonomy in all matters relating to Jewish national life.

In light of this resolution, the Zionist Organization in Russia supports the following platform:

A. Democratization of the Imperial Government on strict parliamentary foundations, broad political freedom, the autonomy of the many territorial nations, and guarantees for the rights of the national minority.

B. Full and absolute equality of rights for the Jewish population.

C. Ensuring the representation of the minority in all the imperial, provincial, and local elections to be held by a general, equal, direct, and secret ballot without distinction of gender.

D. Recognition of the Jewish nation as a corporate entity with autonomous rights in all spheres of national existence.

E. Convening a Pan-Russian Jewish National Assembly to formulate the foundations of national organization.

F. The rights of the national and spoken languages [i.e., Hebrew and Yiddish] in schools, courts, and public life.

G. The right in any place to exchange the Sunday day of rest for the Jewish Sabbath.

Translated by
Shaul
Vardi
.

Notes

[the Basel Program was the World Zionist Movement’s manifesto adopted at the First Zionist Congress in Basel (Switzerland) on August 30, 1897.—Eds.]

[Ethnic groups that formed the majority within their regions, such as the Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian, Latvian people, among many others.—Eds.]

Credits

Third All-Russian Zionist Conference, “Tokhnit Helsingfors: Pe‘ulah le‘umit-medinit ba-golah” [The Helsingfors Program], Ha-zeman 6 (Dec. 19, 1906), republished in Jacob Tsur, ed., Diyoknah shel ha-tfutsah (Jerusalem: Keter, 1975), pp. 347–48.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 7.

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Creator Bio

Third All-Russian Zionist Conference

The Third All-Russian Zionist Conference took place in Helsingfors (now Helsinki, Finland) on December 4–10, 1906. The focus of the conference was on the further development of Zionist activity following Theodor Herzl’s death and in the face of the still-unfolding 1905 Russian Revolution. Both the large-scale political mobilization of Russian Jews by the Revolution, largely as liberals and socialists, and the unprecedently massive anti-Jewish violence that in 1906 accompanied the tsarist regime’s reaction convinced many Zionists that they had to take a more active role in fighting for Jewish interests in Russia (and not only in Palestine) if they wished to remain relevant to Russia’s millions of Jews. Hence, alongside a new vision of how to synthesize diplomatic political activity and practical work in the Palestine/the Land of Israel (“synthetic Zionism”) there was a new focus on how to improve the situation of Jews in the Russian Empire, including much more serious engagement in cultural activism (such as a new system of elementary Hebrew schools) and a growing embrace of the idea that Zionism should actively support Jewish national autonomy in the diaspora alongside nation-building in Palestine. Among the many speakers were Vladimir Jabotinsky, Yitsḥak Grünbaum, and Leo Motzkin.

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