BUSEL, JOSEPH

BUSEL, JOSEPH (1891–1919), Zionist-Socialist pioneer; one of the originators of the idea of the kevuẓah (see *kibbutz movement) and among its founders in Ereẓ Israel. Busel was born in Lachowicze, Minsk Region (Belorussia). Before he went to Ereẓ Irael in 1908 he worked in an agricultural settlement established by *pica in the Kherson province in the Ukraine. In Ereẓ Israel he joined the group cultivating land at the settlement of Kinneret, where he evolved the idea of the independent agricultural collective group. In 1910 Busel, together with members of his "commune of Ḥaderah," settled at Um-Juni (*Deganyah), which became the first kevuẓah. He played a major role in formulating and implementing the principles on which the kevuẓah was founded, e.g., equal burden of work for men and women and communal child care. Busel was a leader of *Ha-Poel ha-Ẓair, and during World War i was active in the general institutions of the yishuv in Ereẓ Israel. He drowned while crossing Lake Kinneret from Tiberias to Deganyah. His wife, hayyuta busel (1890–?), was an educator and agriculturalist. She was born in Lachowicze, settled in Ereẓ Israel and married Joseph in 1917. She was a leading member of the *Histadrut and women's labor movement, and of Iḥud ha-Kevuẓot *ve-ha-Kibbutzim. She settled in Deganyah.

bibliography:

G. Hanoch (Rotfeld) (ed.), J. Busel-Esrim Shanah le-Moto (1939); M. Braslavski, Tenu'at ha-Po'alim ha-Ereẓ Yisre'elit, 4 (1963²), index; Y. Shalom (ed.), Sefer Busel (1960), 233–300.

[Simha Katz]