Shochat left for Paris in order to research the feasibility of her ideas and then to convince the Baron to back them. In 1905, a fresh wave of pogroms swept the Russian Empire. Meir Cohen, an old friend from Minsk, came to Paris seeking the aid of the Jewish community to buy arms so they could defend themselves. Shochat laid aside the Hauran project and put her efforts towards fundraising instead. She convinced Rothschild to donate 50 000 gold francs to that end.