Alexander Zaïd - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Alexander Zaïd was one of the founders of the Jewish defense organizations Bar Giora

Bar Giora

Bar Giora is a moshav in the Judean Mountains. Located between Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 414....

and Hashomer

Hashomer

Hashomer was a Jewish defense organization in Palestine founded out of Bar-Giora in April 1909. It ceased to operate after the founding of the Haganah in 1920. The purpose of Hashomer was to provide guard services for Jewish settlements in the Yishuv, freeing Jewish communities from dependence...

, and a prominent figure of the Second Aliyah

Second Aliyah

The Second Aliyah was an important and highly influential aliyah that took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 40,000 Jews immigrated into Ottoman Palestine, mostly from the Russian Empire, some from Yemen....

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Zaïd was born in 1886 in Zima

Zima (town)

Zima is a town in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, situated on the intersection of the Trans-Siberian Railway with the Oka River. It serves as the administrative center of Ziminsky District, although it is not administratively a part of it. Population: -History:...

, a town in Irkutsk Oblast

Irkutsk Oblast

Irkutsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of Angara River, Lena, and Nizhnyaya Tunguska Rivers. The administrative center is the city of Irkutsk. Population: -History:...

, Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

. His father had been deported from Vilna to Siberia due to revolutionary activity and his mother was a Subbotnik

Subbotniks

Subbotniks are one of the Russian religious bodies known under the general name of "Judaizing Christian sects". On the whole, the Subbotniks originally differed probably very little from other Judaizing societies. They first appeared during the reign of Catherine II, toward the end of the...

, whose parents had converted and were exiled as a result. In 1889 the mother was murdered by a bandit and the family moved to Irkutsk

Irkutsk

Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...