Youth movements provide an opportunity for teenagers to put their feelings and ideals into action; to make an impact on the world around them, by helping others and by building their land; and, not least in importance, to form connections with other young persons around the globe whose ideals match or complement their own. Members of Zionist youth movements, more than most, try to meet these challenges.
In Israel today, youth movements as in many other countries and throughout the Jewish world, are an extensive, organized phenomenon. Most Jewish youth movements were established in Eastern Europe towards the beginning of the twentieth century, motivated by the desire for the national revival of the Jewish people in their homeland. Like other European youth movements, they were critical of established society and idealized a return to nature and a simpler - rural - way of life.
During and shortly after World War I, the social climate in the streets and schools of many European countries became extremely nationalistic and anti-Semitic. The German youth movements took a nationalist turn, and most barred Jews. The Jews of Eastern Europe were engulfed in a sense of crisis after the war, heightened by the pogroms which erupted at this time, and this fostered the Zionist national consciousness of Jewish youth.
The first Zionist youth movement was Blau-Weiss (Blue-White), established in Germany before World War I. The Jewish youth movement with the largest membership and most significant impact, though, was Hashomer Hatza'ir, with its Zionist-socialist ideology.
Youth movements played an important role in the history of Jewry between the two world wars. Their influence greatly exceeded their numerical importance in community organization, education, political awareness and Zionist consciousness. Practically speaking, they were also the builders of the kibbutz movement. Their special inner strength became apparent, tragically, during the Holocaust. They remained active throughout this catastrophe, and their leaders orchestrated Jewish organization and resistance in ghettoes and camps. They also helped plan and implement the Beriha (escape from Europe) movement after the Holocaust. Most of the surviving members eventually settled in Palestine. The destruction of the Jewish communities of central and eastern Europe also marked the end of the Jewish youth movements there.
Most of the youth movements that originated in Eastern Europe established worldwide organizations but these had much less impact. The main movements founded in Eastern Europe have branches in the United States, but young people there tend to join social organizations that are less emphatically political. American Jewish teenagers, thus, mostly belong not to zionist youth movements but to organizations such as B'nai B'rith, associations of synagogues, or local and countrywide community organizations which also impart Jewish-Zionist consciousness.
Youth movements in the Diaspora today play a large part in raising Jewish consciousness among youth. Activities focus on Jewish subjects and encourage members to congregate at Jewish institutions such as synagogues; ties with other young Jews are thus strengthened. Most youth movements encourage their members to spend time in Israel, and some have programs in Israel, ranging in length from a few weeks to a year, for their members. Many new immigrants to Israel from the free world have been influenced by youth movements in their countries of origin.
Youth movements in Palestine began to organize in the 1920s, chiefly under the influence of movement alumni who had come from the Diaspora. They stressed togetherness, pioneering and personal fulfillment, especially on the kibbutz. Here, as in Europe, their public impact and influence on young people was immense.
Most of the movements were affiliated with political entities or even established them. Only the Scouts movement defined itself as nonpartisan, but it also educated its members in a national pioneering spirit and established agricultural training groups that founded their own kibbutzim.
The establishment of the State of Israel marked the fulfillment of many of the goals toward which the movements had educated, and state institutions now took over national tasks such as education. Over the past two decades, the social scale of values of Israeli society has changed, and to some extent, the competitive and materialistic climate has crowded out the pioneering ideals and romanticism of the youth movements. They have, however, continued to cope with social change and are attempting to adjust to changing goals.
