Ruslan (in archaic Russian spelling: Русланъ; in today's accepted spelling: Руслан) which bore the name of the Russian hero Ruslan from Pushkin's poem Ruslan and Ludmila[1] was the first officially organized ship, and in fact the last, that sailed from the former Russian Empire to Israel in 1919, after the end of the First World War. On board were 671 passengers, many of whom would become pioneers in Israeli culture, which is why the Ruslan is nicknamed the "Mayflower" of Israel.[2] [3]
Ruslan is considered the first ship to open the Third Aliya period, even though she was actually one of the last ships to arrive at the shores of Jaffa that year.
In 1918, several hundred residents of Safed and Jaffa arrived who, due to the war and famine that prevailed in the Land of Israel, left their homes and wandered through Syria and Turkey until they arrived in the port of Odessa, while the Austro-Hungarian army was there, hoping that as Austrian subjects they would be allowed to reach Austria. Their attempt failed and they had to stay in Odessa, suffering from cold and rain. To their aid, young Jews - members of the organizations "Revival", "Zion Youth" and others - greatly supported them. They transferred them from the port to the barracks of the Austrian army, which had been abandoned in the meantime. Despite this assistance, several of the refugees died.
The Odessan youngsters, leaders of these Zionist movements, helped the refugees establish the "Refugee Committee of the Land of Israel" which asked to return to the Land of Israel at the end of the war.[4] At that time, many Jews who wanted to immigrate to the Land of Israel gathered in Odessa. The leaders of the organizations decided to take advantage of the existence of a group of several dozen refugees who wanted to return and exaggerated the number of refugees to allow immigrants to join the group of refugees. Menachem Usishkin and Meir Dizengoff contacted the British Foreign Minister, Lord Curzon, and convinced him that they were not Bolsheviks. Organizing the immigrants was a complicated operation. At the time Russia was full of upheavals, control of key provinces and government institutions changed rapidly between the Bolsheviks and the opposing forces, Russia was in the midst of a civil war.[5] Amongst the organizers was also Joseph Klausner who assisted the Odessan Jewish intelligentsia.[6]
Several of the ship's passengers would turn out to be pioneers, especially in cultural fields. Among them are the historian: Joseph Klausner, the architects: Ze'ev Rechter, Yehuda Magidovitch, the Ecole de Paris artist Isaac Frenkel Frenel, the cartoonist: Arieh Navon and more...[7]
Due to the cultural importance and pioneering spirit of the passengers, the Ruslan became known as the Mayflower of Israel. Its passengers pioneered and transformed Israel in the Arts, architecture and more. In 2019, the Israel Museum hosted an exhibition commemorating the Ruslan and its passengers.[8] [9]
Aryeh Rafaeli (Tsantsifir), in the struggle for redemption, the book Russian Zionism from the 1917 Revolution to the Present, Tel Aviv: Dvir and Ayinot Publishers, 1936-1947, pp. 154–156.
Ze'ev Hayam, Sea Routes - History of Israeli Shipping, Tel Aviv: Collaboration with Hayal Yami LeYisrael, 1972, pp. 189–190.
Rabbi Hovel Hillel Yarkoni, The Sea, the Ship, and the People of Israel, Haifa: Pardes Publishers, 2009. The entry "Roslan," p. 253.