Hovevei Zion (, lit. [Those who are] Lovers of Zion), also known as Hibbat Zion (), refers to a variety of organizations which were founded in 1881 in response to the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire and were officially constituted as a group at a conference led by Leon Pinsker in 1884. The organizations are now considered the forerunners and foundation-builders of modern Zionism. Many of the first groups were established in Eastern European countries in the early 1880s with the aim to promote Jewish immigration to Palestine, and advance Jewish settlement there, particularly agricultural. Most of them stayed away from politics. History Since the first centuries of the Common Era most Jews had lived outside Palestine, although there had been a constant presence of Jews there as well. According to the Bible and Judaism, Eretz Israel was promised to the Jews by God. The Jewish diaspora began in 586 BCE during the Babylonian occupation of the Land of Israel. In 1850, Palestine had about 350,000 inhabitants. Roughly 85% were Muslims, 11% were Christians and 4% Jews. In 1854, Judah Touro bequeathed money to fund Jewish residential settlement in Palestine. Sir Moses Montefiore was appointed executor of his will, and used the funds for a variety of projects, including building the first Jewish residential settlement and almshouse outside of the old walled city of Jerusalem in 1860, which is known today as Mishkenot Sha'ananim quarter. Laurence Oliphant failed in a like attempt to bring to Palestine the Jewish proletariat of Poland, Lithuania, Romania, and the Turkish Empire (1879 and 1882). In the Russian Empire, waves of pogroms of 1881-1884 (some allegedly state-sponsored), as well as the anti-Semitic May Laws of 1882 introduced by Tsar Alexander III of Russia, deeply affected Jewish communities. More than 2 million Jews fled Russia between 1880 and 1920. The vast majority of them emigrated to the United States, but some decided to form an aliyah to Ottoman-ruled Palestine. In 1882, a group of ten Hovevei Zion enthusiasts from Kharkiv, Ukraine (then the Russian Empire), headed by Zalman David Levontin and including noted philanthropists Isaac Leib Goldberg and Reuven Yudalevich, founded Rishon LeZion, the first Zionist settlement founded in the Land of Israel by the New Yishuv. This was done despite obstacles posed by the Turkish government, which hindered the purchase of land. Later, Bilu pioneers strengthened the settlement and enlarged it. For many years,