DEVELOPMENT OF ZIONISM IN THE VILLAGE

Our town Kartuz Bereza was blessed by a ramified Zionist activity. One of the representatives to the First Zionist Congress called by Dr. BINIAMIN HERTZL in Basel in 1897, was inhabitant of our town, and his name was AROCHIK.

Even before that day Jews in Kartuz Bereza were supporters and activists of the movement "Chovevei Sion" (Lovers of Zion). We have several written testimonies saying that in 1900 and 1911, Zionists of Bereza collected money for the construction of Eretz Israel.

Around those years, in 1913, departed from Bereza emigrants who would found the settlement "Yanviel", in North Israel.

The anxiety for the emigration to Eretz Israel was strong, and, if emigration limits and needed certificates hadn't existed, the number of emigrants would have been bigger. Nevertheless Jews from Bereza emigrated to Eretz Israel, drop by drop, during all those years. At the same time, Jews kept ramified activities in Kartuz Bereza.

We had a Tarbut Hebrew school called Yanve, a Zionist council and another for the KKL (fund for land recovery in Israel), and, there's no need to say, a Zionist party and mostly youth movements that had the privilege to emigrate to Israel. Besides, as is acceptable in every age and country, even young men in Kartuz Bereza had sour arguments about different ideologies between movements.