The beginnings of the Zionist movement in Galicia in 1898 based on the documents of the Lviv Governorate

Abstract

The Judaica collected at the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Lviv, also customarily referred to as the Bernardin Archive, constitute, without doubt, some of the most important source materials for the history of the Jews of Galicia and Lesser Poland. Particularly noteworthy are the archives devoted to the “National Zionist Organization in Lviv” (fond 338) and the “Jewish Religious Community in Lviv” (fond 701). However, it turns out that valuable materials on Jewish issues can also be found in the arvhives entitled “C.k. Namiestnictwo Galicyjskie”/”K.k.. Galizische Statthalterei” [Imperial royal Galician Governorate] (fond 146), which includes all documentation (nearly 200,000 archival units) produced for the most important political authority in Galicia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The archives contains, e.g. the reports of the starostes regarding the activities of Zion (Jewish organizations for the colonization of the territory of Palestine), which are an invaluable source of knowledge about the beginnings of Jewish emigration to Palestine and, above all, its course in Galicia and the attitude of the state authorities. On the basis of the reports of district governors compiled in 1898, it may be possible to reconstruct the origins of the Zionist movement in Galicia.