 A year later, he departed for the U.S. with the intention of marrying his fiancée, who had by then arrived there from Ukraine.The political situation—the outbreak of World War I—obstructed his plans to return at once with his family.In 1913 he took part in the founding of Ahuza Alef in New York, an organization dedicated to the purchase of lands and the establishment of a Hebrew settlement, to be inhabited by Jews tilling their own soil.