Ruppin joined the Zionist Organization ( ZO , the future World Zionist Organization – WZO ) in 1905 . In 1907 he was sent by David Wolffsohn , the President of the ZO , to study the condition of the Yishuv ( the Jewish community in Palestine ) , then in the Ottoman Empire , to investigate the possibilities for development of agriculture and industry . He reported on what he saw , which was distressing , and gave recommendations for improving the situation . In 1908 Ruppin came to live in Palestine by decision of the eighth Zionist Congress . He opened the Palestine Office of the Zionist Organization in Jaffa , with the aim of directing the settlement activities of the Zionist movement . His work made Practical Zionism possible and shaped the direction of the Second Aliya , the last wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine before World War I. Ruppin became the chief Zionist land agent . He helped to get a loan for Ahuzat Bayit , later Tel Aviv , and acquired land on the Carmel , in Afula , in the Jezreel Valley , and in Jerusalem . Ruppin was instrumental in shaping the nature of Jewish settlement in Palestine and in changing the paradigm of settlement from those of plantation owners and poor laborers to the collective and cooperative kibbutzim and moshavim that became the backbone of the state-in-the-making . He catalyzed the commune at Sejera , and helped building the first kibbutz – Degania , as well as helping to support and organize Kinneret , Merhavia and other settlements ( background about Labor Zionism can be found at www.mideastweb.org ) . Later , he supported Yehoshua Hankin in his purchases of large tracts of land in the Galilee . Ruppin was among the founders of the Brit Shalom peace movement , which supported a binational state , but he left Brit Shalom after the 1929 Hebron massacre . Thereafter he was convinced that only an independent Jewish state would be possible , and he believed that the way to bring about that state was through continued settlement . He headed the Jewish Agency between 1933 and 1935 , and helped to settle the large numbers of Jewish immigrants from Germany who came in that period . Ruppin died in 1943 . He was buried in Degania Alef
1929 Hebron massacre
1929 Hebron massacre
Arthur Ruppin