Jews in Slavonia and the Beginnings of the Zionist Movement in Osijek

While Zionism was swiftly gaining ground in Europe, the movement appeared in Croatia only in the early 20^th century, when the Young Jews (mladožidovi), children of distinguished Jewish urban families, started returning home after completing their studies at faculties in Vienna, Graz, Berlin, and Prague, where they had gotten acquainted with Zionist ideas. Although Zagreb was the Croatian city with the greatest number of Jews and Jewish institutions, due to the efforts of lawyer and Jewish municipality president Hugo Spitzer, Zionism was more widespread in Osijek, a city near the eastern part of the Croatian-Hungarian border. The first Zionist organisation was founded in Osijek; the first Zionist newspapers and the first Zionist congresses (1904, 1906) were also organised there. In this presentation on the beginnings of the Zionist movement in Croatia and Osijek, the author will strive to answer the question of how Osijek, a Slavonian city on the periphery of Croatia, became the cradle of the Zionist movement in Croatia rather than Zagreb, which was the main centre of political and cultural institutions, Jewish communities, and prominent individuals.