This is a letter written to Menachem Ussishkin, the president of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) by a boy who identified himself as “Shmueli from Poland,” writing on behalf of the children of the Hebrew schools in Poland. It was published in a children's newspaper, Olami HaKatan on the eve of the festival of Shavuot in 1936. It is accompanied by an illustration, featured on the front cover of the newspaper, depicting children bringing baskets of the “first fruit” (bikkurim) to Ussishkin, who is sitting on a bench. Date palms can be seen in the background. The illustration is titled “the Festival of Bikkurim in the Land of Israel.”
In the first paragraph of the letter, Shmueli describes that he and his classmates look at photographs of children in Israel bringing bikkurim to the JNF. Since the students in Poland do not have any agriculture of their own and therefore can't bring bikkurim, they ask if they can donate their pocket money to the JNF instead.
In the second paragraph Shmueli mentions being told that Ussishkin had recently purchased land and asks if they may contribute to that particular project. He suggests that there should be a division of the work until they have the privilege of making aliya to Israel: the children of the Diaspora will donate money to buy or, in Shmueli’s words, “redeem” the land, and the children of Israel will bring the bikkurim in their name as well.
At the end of the letter Shmueli writes that he and his classmates plan to study at the Tarbut agricultural school in Ludmil so that they are able to work in Israel as farmers and bring the bikkurim to Ussishkin in person.
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Shavuot - Shavuot, the festival mentioned in the article – also known as the Festival of Weeks – is celebrated on the sixth of Sivan. Shavuot, one of the three biblical pilgrim festivals, commemorates many different things: it marks the day that the Israelites received the Torah on Mount Sinai; it celebrates the wheat harvest in Israel; and it signifies the end of the Counting of the Omer. It is celebrated with many colourful and festive traditions such as holding bikkurim ceremonies, eating dairy food, decorating the synagogue with flowers and greenery, reading the Book of Ruth, and studying the Torah all through the night (Tikkun Leil Shavuot).
Tarbut Schools - The Tarbut schools existed between the world wars and close to 45,000 children learned in 270 Tarbut institutions. These schools taught both Jewish and secular studies in Hebrew with an emphasis on Israel and Zionism. In addition to the regular curriculum, the schools trained the students in physical labour to assist for their future in Israel. Tarbut also published the "Olami HaKatan" (My World) newspaper which appeared from 1936 to 1939. The newspaper aimed to connect its readers to other students of the Tarbut network and to the events in Israel. It also devoted attention to the major figures of the Zionist movement and Hebrew culture. The newspaper was aimed at younger children of primary school age and encouraged children to contribute to the newspaper. The onset of the Second World War brought the European Tarbut schools to an end and many of its students were murdered during the Holocaust.
Bikkurim - One of the names of Shavuot in the Torah is the festival of the first fruits. These first fruits are traditionally of the “seven species” that were special agricultural products of the Land of Israel: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates (Deuteronomy 8:8). According to Jewish tradition, the first fruits, Bikkurim, were brought to the priests in the Temple in Jerusalem, as described in the Torah: “The first, the crowns of your land, you shall come, the house of the Lord your God” (Exodus 26:26).
Bikkurim Celebrations in Modern Israel - The early settlements in modern Israel transformed the traditional Bikkurim ceremony into a secular agricultural celebration – first fruit ceremonies to rejoice the end of the harvest festival (another term for Shavuot). The first fruits in the kibbutzim, in contrast to the time of the Temple, are not only the seven species but all kinds of fruits, vegetables, livestock, and even the babies born in the past year. The ceremonies feature colourful performances of songs and dances and processions of decorated agricultural tools and machinery, farm produce, and young children.
The Jewish National Fund- The Jewish National Fund (JNF) was founded in 1901 in order to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. In the ensuing years, both during the British Mandate and after the establishment of the State of Israel, the JNF planted millions of trees, built dams and reservoirs, and developed more than 250,000 acres of land for settlement. The JNF was founded by the Zionist movement, and its campaigns aimed at attracting the support of Diaspora Jews. The blue JNF collection box symbolized the partnership between Israel and the Diaspora and was once found in many Jewish homes and organizations.
Ludmir - The letter refers to the town of Ludmir in Poland. Ludmir’s Jewish community is first mentioned in 1171. The Jews of Ludmir were engaged in trade and crafts, especially shoemaking and leather processing. The community grew steadily, but in the seventeenth century many Jews were murdered by the Cossacks in the Khmelnytsky pogroms. In the following years the community slowly recovered and became an important Hassidic centre when the founder of the Karliner Hassidic dynasty settled in Ludmir. A local woman, Hannah Rachel Verbermacher, known as the “Maiden of Ludmir,” became a popular Hassidic leader due to her righteousness and wisdom. She is considered the only independent female Rebbe of the Hassidic movement. Located near the border between Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine, the town developed into a thriving centre of trade, and the Jewish community flourished. At the end of the nineteenth century around 6,000 Jews lived in Ludmir, comprising about 60 percent of the town’s population. Jewish institutions were established in the town, including charitable and medical institutions, Zionist organisations, yeshivas, and secular schools such as Tarbut and ORT. By the outbreak of World War II, the Jewish population had grown to 25,000. In 1942 the Jews from Ludmir and the neighbouring villages were forced into a ghetto, and by the end of that year all of the Jews were murdered, except for a small number who managed to escape to the forests. About 140 Jews returned to Ludmir after the war, but in the following year the Jewish community ceased to exist, and in a current census no Jews were reported.
