(IsraelNN.com) More than 120 heads of yeshivas and other leading rabbis from the Bnei Akiva movement marked the 110th anniversary of the passing of Rabbi Shmuel Mohliver, who founded the Mizrachi movement and was a key figure in modern Zionism.

The ceremony took place at Rabbi Mohliver's gravesite at Mazkeret Batya. The rabbis gathered for a day of study on the subject of the Talmudic Tractate of Kidushin (Marriage) at the large synagogue in the community.

Rabbi Mohliver served as the force behind the religious faction within the Zionist Hibat Tzion (or Hovevei Tzion) movement, which he decided to join despite the fact that it was dominated by non-religious leaders. However, some of the movement's decisions caused him to conclude that a separate religious Zionist movement was needed and he created the Mizrachi movement.

Ordained at 18
Some of Hibat Tzion's decisions caused him to conclude that a separate religious Zionist movement was needed.

Born into a rabbinical family in Vilna in 1824, Mohilever was so brilliant a student of the traditional curriculum that he was ordained a rabbi at the age of eighteen at the Volozhin yeshiva. He was offered rabbinical posts in several communities in the Vilna area, and became active in community affairs.

In the 1870s, Mohilever was one of the rabbis who met with leaders of the maskilim – Jews who broke with Talmudic tradition and emphasized secular knowledge and practical training. As pogroms swept through eastern Europe and Russia, he approached the Jews who fled to Russia as well as philanthropists to try to convince them that Jews should go to the Land of Israel.

Influenced Rothschild
He was one of the leaders who influenced philanthropist Edmond de Rothschild to help establish early settlements in the Land of Israel, particularly Ekron (later renamed Mazkeret Batya), which was intended for Jewish farmers from Russia. He also helped persuade Jews in Bialystok to settle in Petach Tikva.  He was honorary president of the 1884 Hovevei Zion conference, as well as chairman of their conferences in 1887 and 1889. Under his influence, a board of rabbis was chosen to insure that settlement work in Eretz Yisrael would be carried out in accordance with Jewish tradition "as much as possible."

In 1890, he led a group tour of the Land of Israel and three years later he initiated the concept of a “merkaz ruchani” (spiritual center) in Zion which became Mizrachi, the religious Zionist organization, forerunner of today's National Religious Party.