Israel Belkind

Israel Belkind (Belarusian: Ізраэль Белкінд, Hebrew: ישראל בלקינד; 1861–1929) was a Jewish educator, author, writer, historian and founder of the Bilu movement.

His siblings were Shimon, Sonia and Olga Belkind Hankin, the last a feminist who was involved with redeeming land in Eretz Yisrael.

However, the wave of antisemitic attacks and pogroms against Jews in southern Russia on 1881 instead led him to become intensively involved in Zionist activities.

Belkind proposed a name for the agricultural moshava of Rehovot based on the Book of Genesis: "And he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said: 'For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land'."

In 1904, Israel Belkind established an educational institute in the village of Meir Shfeya, which took in orphans from the Kishinev pogrom.

However, after two years of dispute with the Edmond James de Rothschild's emissaries at the colony, Belkind was prompted to move the children to Ben Shemen.