Literatureמשה סמילנסקי

Moshe Smilansky

Moshe Smilansky was a First Aliyah pioneer, farmer and Hebrew writer who advocated peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs.

1874 to 1953Stories of Arab life as Khawaja MoussaFirst Aliyah pioneer in RehovotAdvocating Jewish-Arab coexistence

Born: 24 February 1874, Kyiv Oblast
Died: 6 October 1953, Rehovot
Occupation: writer, farmer

Moshe Smilansky was born in 1874 in Kyiv Oblast

Smilansky was born in 1874 in Telepino, a village in Kiev Governorate in the Russian Empire, to a family of farmers. He was taught by private tutors, and members of Bilu were among his teachers.

He moved to Ottoman Palestine in 1890 and worked as a farm laborer in Rishon LeZion after his family returned to Russia. In 1893 he settled in Rehovot, where he planted vineyards, almonds and later citrus groves. He went back to Russia for military service but was released after a few weeks.

He wrote for many Hebrew periodicals under the pen names Ben Hava and Heruti, and co-founded the journal Ha-Omer. From 1906 he published stories about Arab life under the name Khawaja Moussa, later collected in Bene Arav. He also wrote memoirs and histories of the early Zionist settlers.

He helped found the association of moshavot and edited its weekly Bustenai from 1929 to 1937. He was close to Brit Shalom, explored a bi-national state with Arab leaders in the 1930s, and in 1946 urged an Arab-Jewish state before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. He died in 1953.