This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Hashomer Hatzair[1] (Hebrew: הַשׁוֹמֵר הַצָעִיר, IPA: [haʃoˈmeʁ hatsaˈʔiʁ], 'The Young Guard') is a Labor Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement founded in 1913 in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary.

Hashomer Hatzair believed that the liberation of Jewish youth could be accomplished by aliyah (immigration; literally "ascent") to Palestine and living in kibbutzim.

The movement also formed a political party that shared the name Hashomer Hatzair, advocating a binational solution in mandatory Palestine with equality between Arabs and Jews.

With the advent of World War II and the Holocaust, members of Hashomer Hatzair focused their attention on resistance against the Nazis.

A personal account of the Holocaust, In the Mouth of the Wolf details the escape of Hashomer Hatzair member Rose Zar (née Ruszka Guterman) from the Piotrków Ghetto and hiding in plain sight, by working for the Wehrmacht and the SS.

He was also the leader of the infamous Gestapo-sponsored, Nazi-collaborationist Jewish organisation Żagiew, which was formed in February 1943[8] at the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

In Europe, North and Latin America, as well as in Australia, Hashomer Hatzair organizes activities and camps (machanot) for the youth.

Activities are still ideological, but over time have been adapted to the needs of modern communities, vastly different from the context in which Hashomer Hatzair was created.

The movement has more than 7,000 members worldwide (excluding Israel) running weekly youth activities and camps in Germany, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, France, Belgium.

Famous alumni include Evelyn Torton Beck, Arik Einstein, Dan Shechtman, Bella Abzug, Tony Cliff, Ehud Gazit, Ernest Mandel, Mordecai Anielewicz, Abraham Leon, Martin Monath, Benny Morris, Eliane Karp, Leopold Trepper, Amnon Linn, Zahara Rubin, Haviva Reik, Aaron Klug, Abba Hushi, Sam Spiegel, Irv Weinstein, Manès Sperber, Leon Rosselson, Juliana Rozestan, José Gurvich, Ilan Goldfajn,Joel Westheimer, Avi Levacov, Prisoner X (Ben Zygier),[10] Milo Adler Gilles, Gila Martow, and even Isser Harel and Menachem Begin who were briefly members before joining Mapai and the right wing Betar respectively, as well as Kerem B'Yavneh's Rabbi Avraham Rivlin.

Once a huge movement inside the large Argentinian Jewish Community, Hashomer Hatzair Argentina suffered from decay common to all Zionist youth movements in Argentina during the last decades, as well as several military dictatorships in the country's history that directly or indirectly led to the closure of several of its kenim.

It runs weekly meetings as well as bi-annual camps which take place in the Australian countryside, during the summer and winter months.

Members often go to rallies, actively pursue social justice locally and abroad, and run programs for disadvantaged children.

In Brazil, the movement is informally called "Shomer" and has six branches: Rio de Janeiro (2), São Paulo, Florianópolis, Brasília, and Natal.

In Rio, where the tnuah is bigger, it embodies one of the left-wing Zionist institutions in the local Jewish community, playing a leading role in subjects like the peace process in the Middle East.

Тhe Bulgarian branch of Hashomer Hatzair was established after WWII but it closed down when the communist regime in Bulgaria began.

[14] The movement organises weekly activities in Berlin for children and youth ages 8–21, led by the Ken Team, as well as an annual summer camp (Sommermachane).

Following a Pessach Seminar in March 2021, a booklet on Jewish Lives in Germany by HHD and its sub-project ROSBOT was published in July 2021, and was dedicated to Esther Bejarano, Holocaust survivor, artist and activist, who died on the day of the official publication.

As part of the project a team of volunteers was established, travelled to Israel to work around materials in the Kibbutzim archives and the Yad Yaari Research & Documentation Center, as well as meeting the former members and their families.

won the Shimon-Peres-Prize in 2023, given by the German foreign minister, for outstanding initiatives of successful cooperation between young people from Germany and Israel.

Examples of past topics include Zionism and peace, equality between genders, socialism, Judaism in Hashomer Hatzair, and so forth.

Since 1983, its "ken" (Hebrew for "nest", i.e., its headquarters), named after Mordechai Anielewicz, is currently located in the Polanco neighbourhood, western part of Mexico City.

In 1939 he returned to Kolno after his mother died and luckily got out before the Nazi invasion to attend a Zionist conference in Paris.

As of the present day, the Mexican branch of Hashomer Hatzair comprises approximately fifty members who regularly attend cultural, educational and sporting events as a group.

In its early stages, there were two different kinim but now there is only one in the centre of the city, consisting of two kvutzot of younger children (ages 6 to 7 and 8 to 10) and another two of older kids (11 to 13 and 14 to 16).

During the 2nd world war, there were five major Kenim (Zurich, Basel, Berne, Biel, Geneva) plus activities in a few smaller cities and in the refugee centers.

The name is Ken Najshon, inspired like the prince of the tribe of Judah, who led the Jewish people out of Egypt across the waters opened by Moses .

Groups have been organized in Israel by Israelis and non-Israelis, and others were formed in their countries of origin (such as in Canada, the United States, Switzerland and Hungary).

The Life Movement in the United States and Canada has created three urban communes, one in New York and two in Toronto where members are experimenting with the Israeli model of communot in their home societies.

A substantial part of the Kibbutz movement, for example, Hashomer Hatzair, was at least officially anti-state, calling for bi-nationalism.