Joseph Niego

Who was Joseph Niego?

Joseph Niego also known as Yosef Niego was born in Andrinople.

Joseph Niego was one of the leading figures in the creation of the state of Israel. He was instrumental in the political, agricultural, and economical roots of the foundation of the Jewish State.

Joseph Niego was sent to France to the Faculty of Agriculture in order to help Mikveh Israel cultivate the land. Thanks to the Eucalyptus trees he imported to the Holy Land, he dried the swamps that prevented agricultural development.

In 1891, Baron Moritz de Hirsch founded the Jewish Colonization Association in order to help the Russian Jews who were suffering from anti-semitsm. In 1896 Baron Hirsch appointed Joseph Niego as the advisor of JCA in Palestine. Aware of the unemployment and integration problem of the Russian Jewish immigrants, Joseph Niego decided to build economically viable "work-farms" which was a primitive form of a modern-day Kibbutz.

In 1898, Joseph Niego arranged a meeting between Kaiser Wilhelm II and Theodor Herzl in Palestine.

In 1911, Joseph Niego founded the B'NAI B'RITH Grand Lodge District XI that covered all Ottoman lands. The B'NAI B'RITH lodge in Israel is named after Joseph Niego in order to recognize and honor a life of service to the Jewish causes.