On February 10, 1834, Isaac Rulf, a Jewish educator, journalist, and philosopher, was born. Rulf is remembered for his contributions to early Zionism as well as for his humanitarian relief work within the general Russian Jewish community. Rulf was born in Memel, or modern-day Lithuania. Memel had an active Jewish community that included synagogues and communal institutions for both Eastern European Jews and Prussian Jews. It was in the Prussian Jewish community that Rulf first gained recognition by serving as a local rabbi from 1865 to 1898, and he began his work to help not only his community but the international community as well. The persecuted and less fortunate Jews served as inspiration for Rulf's art. In an attempt to save his fellow Jews from violent antisemitic riots and executions, Rulf directed an underground effort to smuggle Jews out of Russia and into Germany. He then established relief funds for Russian Jews in Germany, collecting approximately 630,000 German marks (around $400,000). Due to his significant aid, the Russian Jews addressed him as “Rabbi Hulf,” meaning ‘help’. While Rabbi Rulf had managed to help the Russian Jewish community escape persecution, he soon realized that a Jewish safe haven, in the form of a nation-state, was integral to the survival of the Jewish people. And thus, he began his lifelong work with Leon Pinsker, Nathan Birnbaum, and other early Zionist scholars to push for the return of the Jewish people to Eretz Israel. In his later years, Rulf grew more insistent that Prussia’s Jews make aliyah to Eretz Israel. In 1900, he even published an article entitled “Topical Study” in the journal Die Welt, where he warned that, at the end of the century, the mass murder of millions of Jews would take place.