Background
He was born in Bobruisk (Belorus) on January 25, 1887 to a wealthy and educated family.
He was born in Bobruisk (Belorus) on January 25, 1887 to a wealthy and educated family.
Self-taught, he was soon at home w'ith the writings of the Russian Socialists. The Russian revolution of 1905 made a deep impression on him and led him to study deeper the meaning of socialism and look for a way to fuse it with Zionism.
Arriving in Eretz Israel in 1909, he immersed himself in physical labor in various Galilee settlements and began his political involvement alongside David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.
The Histadrut became his major arena of activity. In 1925 Katzelson became the editor-in-chief of its daily newspaper, Davar, and later founded a publishing company called Am Oved. He demanded that the Histadrut expand its operations to encompass cultural, educational, and even financial activities, in addition to serving as a pure trade union. In the process, he argued that it was inevitable that the labor movement must take control of the fate of the Jewish community and lead it gradually toward independence.
Katznelson prophesied the coming destruction of European Jewry but split from the leadership of his party when he opposed the British proposal in 1937 to partition Palestine, arguing that the Zionist movement must insist on the whole country. By nature and upbringing a liberal-humanist, he wanted to impart these traits to the generation of young workers growing up in Palestine. This lie did through a series ot seminars, lectures, and writings, becoming the teacher of many young men and women working their way up the ranks of the Histadrut and the Haganah underground organization.
His final years were marked by growing illness and sadness over the split in his party (Mapai) between the activists and the more moderate. The Holocaust proved to him that the only place for Jews is in their ancient homeland and that Eretz Israel must be made secure to absorb the survivors. Katznelson’s teachings were published in twelve volumes of his writings and letters.
Katznelson belonged to a number of Zionist-Socialist groups but decided to immigrate to Eretz Israel in view of what he considered the sterility of the arguments in these Socialist circles and their negative attitude toward the Jewish national renaissance and the need to settle the Jewish homeland.
He was very much concerned with the rise of right-wing nationalism in the form of the Revisionists under Vladimir Jabotinsky and challenged their ideology, saying that their irresponsible acts could endanger the future of the Jews in the country. He sought to cement the ties between the Jews in Palestine and the masses of Jews in the Diaspora, but was only partly successful. The Revisionists were able to capture the majority of Polish Jewry with their ideology of nationalism and direct action.
Katznelson preached the concept of “conquest of labor,” that is, the importance of Jewish labor as the basis for Jewish society, and the need for Jewish farmers to employ Jewish laborers.
Quotes from others about the person
His death came as a shock to the legion of his admirers and David Ben-Gurion cried: “The light of the movement has gone out.”