 Following the suggestion of David Gordon, Katowice, then in Germany, was chosen as the site for the conference.Its date was fixed for Oct. 27, 1884, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Moses Montefiore, at the suggestion of the Warsaw society.The conference was intended primarily for the Ḥibbat Zion societies in Russia, as the movement in Romania had greatly weakened and there were very few Ḥibbat Zion societies in other countries.