?ISIN, ?AYYIM

?ISIN, ?AYYIM (1865–1932), *Bilu pioneer in Ere? Israel. A native of Mir, Belorussia, ?isin was roused by the 1881 pogroms and joined the Bilu association, going to Ere? Israel in July 1882 with the second Bilu group. He worked in Mikveh Israel and Rishon le-Zion. He joined the Bilu settlement of *Gederah, which he later left because he refused to live on the dole. He tried to support himself and his family by working as a coachman carrying passengers between Jaffa and Jerusalem. In 1887 he returned to Russia and studied pharmacology. In the late 1880s and early 1890s ?isin contributed articles to the Russian-Jewish journal Voskhod, including the diary written during his stay in Ere? Israel and a description of his visit to the country in 1890. In 1898 he went to Berne, Switzerland, to study medicine. He was active in propagating Zionism among the Russian-Jewish students in Western Europe, attended the early Zionist congresses, and was an active member of the "*Democratic Fraction." He again went to Ere? Israel in 1905, this time settling as a qualified physician, and was appointed as the representative of the Odessa committee of the ?ovevei Zion in Jaffa. He helped to found the first workers' settlements – *Ein Gannim, *Be'er Ya'akov, *Na?alat Yehudah, and *Kefar Malal. In 1909 ?isin was one of the founders of A?uzat Bayit, the first nucleus of the city of Tel Aviv. He died in Tel Aviv.

His diary, translated from Russian into Hebrew by S. Herberg under the title Mi-Yoman E?ad ha-Bilu'im ("From the Diary of a Bilu Member," 1925), is a valuable aid to understanding the period.

bibliography:

Tidhar, 2 (1947), 756–7; I. Klausner, Oppozi?yah le-Herzl (1960), index; D. Smilansky, Im Benei Dori (1942), 268–72; M. Smilansky, Mishpa?at ha-Adamah, 2 (1954), 151–8; Sefer Ussishkin (1934), 331–6.

[Gedalyah Elkoshi and

Yehuda Slutsky]