The young revolutionary shows signs of the great organizer he will later become. He gathers his friends and forms the Ezra Society. His objective is to transform Hebrew, commonly used only in prayers, into a living language. He arrives in Haifa. David Gryn works as a farm laborer on various Jewish settlements from Petah-Tikva to Sejera.
Conditions are harsh.
Work is so scarce that sometimes he is close to starvation. At other times he suffers recurrent attacks of malaria. Nevertheless, he does not abandon the Land. 1910 Drawn increasingly to politics, David Gryn gives up agricultural pioneering and moves to Jerusalem. It is at this time that he begins to use the Hebrew surname Ben-Gurion, which he chose because by sound it resembles Gryn and because of his identification with the historical Jewish leader.