[9] The Hebrew weekly
Ha-Meliz, published in St. Petersburg, was a staunch supporter of the
movement, and a little later Ha-Zefirah, published in Warsaw, which was
at first indifferent, if not antagonistic, joined the ranks. In Russian,
too, the Razsvyet and especially the Buduchnost spread Zionism among
their readers, while books, pamphlets, and poems were published in
Yiddish for circulation among the masses. In addition to the Hobebe Zion
societies formed in many cities, secret societies were organized, such
as the famous Bene Mosheh (Sons of Moses), which had for its object the
moral and intellectual improvement of the future citizens of the Jewish
Republic; the Bilu (initials of Bet Ya'akob leku we-nelekah, "O House of
Jacob, come and let us go"), formed by Israel Belkind, who went to
Palestine with his fellow-students of the University of Kharkov, and
founded the colony of Gederah; and the Hillul (Hereb la-Adonai
u-le-Arzenu, "A sword for God and our land"), the members of which
pledged themselves to remove any obstacle to the cause of nationalism,
even at the cost of their lives. The Bone Zion (Builders of Zion), a
sort of Masonic fraternity, was a very potent secret society, which
undertook to constitute itself a provisional Jewish Government, and
assiduously watched the Zionistic societies and their leaders in every
portion of the globe.
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