At the end of the 19th century Jewish social life was marked by increased political activity. Against the backdrop of domestic and state anti-Semitism, the idea of creating an independent state in the historical homeland, in the "Eretz Israel" - the Land of Israel, became more prominent. The social and political movement based on this idea was called Zionism.
One of the first Zionist organizations, Hovewei Zion (those who love Zion), was founded in 1884 and operated mainly in the Russian Empire. This organization was the link between the idea of returning to Zion and the beginning of political Zionism, proclaimed by Theodor Herzl at the first Zionist Congress in 1897. He concluded that the creation of the independent state of Israel was the only acceptable way for Jewish people after the pogroms of 1881 in Russia and the explicitly anti-Semitic Dreyfus affair in France in 1896. The most prominent figures of the Zionist movement are devoted to a collage to the right of the entrance to the hall.
Showcase 1.22 contains authentic postcards that were distributed in Yekatrinoslav in the early 20th century and called for membership in Zionist organizations, in the left corner - a membership card belonging to one of Zionists of Kiev. And over the showcase there is a poster in Yiddish representing another political group of Jews - United Jewish Socialist Workers. You can see propaganda materials of Bund, the The General Jewish Labour Bund (Union) in Lithuania, Poland and Russia. It was one of the largest and most powerful Jewish political forces in the late 19th and early 20th century and represented the interests and aspirations of a fairly numerous Jewish proletariats. In 1898, the Bund joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), and when it split, into “Bolsheviks” and “Mensheviks”, it supported the Mensheviks.
On two billboards you can see posters with samples of political agitation of Jewish parties in the early twentieth century.
Three showcases display materials from private archives of Jewish families: photos, business cards, personal belongings. All this shows the fragments of that old, pre-revolutionary world that lived out its last days. At that time, there were various ways of Jewish fate. Some ventured to emigrate to the United States, Canada, South America, escaping pogroms and constant danger. One of such stories can be told by Heida Tsivia Bat Chaim Leib Slipakova, native Yekaterinoslav. In 1912, Heida, her husband and 4-year-old son Moses left their hometown forever. On August 6, 1912, the Slipakovs family crossed the Russian- German border at the control point of Modrzhiyev (now Myslowice – Republic of Poland). Most likely, the family got to one of the German ports, and then traveled to its new homeland on the American continent – to Argentina.
Some Jews stayed and joined the political struggle, replenishing the ranks of various political parties.
Showcase 1.25 is dedicated to the war and revolutions; it contains the banknotes of the Ukrainian People's Republic, 1918. The front face of a denomination of 100 rubles has an inscription in Ukrainian and on the reverse – Russian, Polish and Yiddish. In this way, the authorities tried to demonstrate the equality of the main ethnic groups in the newly created state. Nearby is a document of the People's Ministry of Jewish Affairs of the Ukrainian People's Republic, issued in March 1918, which refers to the arranging of elections to the Jewish public councils.