Bar Giora's founder, Israel Shochat made his Aliyah to Ottoman Syria (later Palestine) in 1904. He already had experience of underground militias during the Tzarist pogroms and on his arrival he came under the influence of Michael Halperin, attracted by his talk of an army of Jewish fighters. Shochat established a small group of loyal followers and in 1906 launched the local branch of Poale Zion with about 60 members. In 1907 Yitzhak Ben-Zvi arrived from Poltava; as leader of Russian Poale Zion he had been on the run from the secret police for a year. Shochat and Ben-Ziv travelled together to the 8th World Zionist Congress in The Hague and on their return established the first incarnation of Bar Giora.
