November 6 1884 – 18 Marheshvan 5645
The Hovevei Zion movement held its first conference in the city of Katowice in Silesia, Germany (now Poland), fully thirteen years before Herzl’s first Zionist Congress. The initiative of Leon Pinsker, author of Auto-Emancipation, and Rabbi Shmuel Mohliver, the congress was attended by 36 representatives of the movement from all over Europe, including Asher Ginsberg (Ahad Ha’am) and Aaron David Gordon. It’s purpose was to set up a central committee of all the chapters of Hovevei Zion to raise funds for the colonies the movement had already founded in Ottoman Palestine and engage in political lobbying to advance the cause of further Jewish immigration and settlement. As Zionist activity was outlawed in Russia, home to a majority of the participants, the congress was publicized as a tribute to Sir Moses Montefiore in honor of his hundredth birthday, which he’d celebrated two weeks earlier on October 24.