Free Republic

During 1940, three of the most significant Zionist leaders in the world – Chaim Weizmann, Vladimir Jabotinsky, and David Ben Gurion , all visited the United States , hoping to gain a measure of American Jewish support or US government support for the creation of a Jewish army to help fight the Nazis. Rick Richman's new book, Racing Against History, provides an interesting and very carefully researched history of these visits, the leaders' goals, what they accomplished, and what prevented greater success. Richman's book is a fascinating look at a moment in time, different seemingly from our own, but with...

The following is the translated text of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin's speech at the grave of Ze’ev Jabotinsky on Har Herzl (Mount Herzl) in 1980, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jabotinsky. Ze'ev Jabotinsky was the heroic Revisionist Zionist leader and visionary, author, orator, soldier, and founder of the Jewish Self-Defense Organization in Odessa. He also helped form the Jewish Legion of the British army in World War I. “Upon completion of the centennial of your birth – and this time only – we have come to address some remarks at your graveside. We report to...

SNIPPET: "The colonel, Richard Henry Meinertzhagen, served as an advisor at the War Office in London and knew Jabotinsky from his service in the British army in the Land of Israel after the Ottoman era in 1918. The colonel documented his conversation with the Zionist leader in his private diary, which was published in London in 1959 as a book titled, "Middle East Diary, 1917-1956." Here is a short segment from the conversation: Jabotinsky: I have brought a plan to bomb Hitler and the entire Nazi leadership. Meinertzhagen: An ambitious plot. Jabotinsky: An attainable one. Meinertzhagen: Do elaborate. Jabotinsky: A...

"The government took Ze'ev Jabotinsky out of the school textbooks and inserted the Nakba [the Palestinian "disaster" of Israel's founding] instead," opposition leader and Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday during a special Knesset session called during the legislature's summer recess. Netanyahu was referring to the decision by Education Minister Yuli Tamir (Labor) to remove the writings of Jabotinsky from the curriculum. Jabotinsky (1880-1940) founded the Zionism revisionist movement, the precursor to the Likud Party. He also helped form the British army's Jewish Legion during World War I, and the Irgun (IZL) underground movement. In addition, he was an author,...

Jabotinsky, Weizmann, and the roots of the most contentious communal struggle on earth today In her last, powerful little book, The Question of Zion (reviewed in the TLS, April 21, 2006), Jacqueline Rose perceptively observed that, “while Israel barely leaves the front page of the daily papers, Zionism itself is hardly ever talked about”. That’s quite true, though not quite unique. Think of the column inches and radio and television time that have been devoted to the small island of Ireland and its smaller province of Ulster, and of the vehement polemic they have inspired, and then ask how often...

Michael Cherney: Rare Jabotinsky Writings Now Published In Israel, Russia By Israel News Agency Staff Jerusalem ----April 18...... The first volume in the nine-volume Collected Works by Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky has been published. The publication is a joint project by Jabotinsky Institute in Israel and “The Ark”, Moscow Cultural and Educational Center for Russia - Jewish Intelligentsia, under overall sponsorship by Michael Cherney Foundation in Israel. Vladimir Jabotinsky was a prominent public figure and writer, founder of the Revisionist movement in Zionism and the beacon of Israel’s national camp. Born in Odessa, Russia in 1880, he wrote mostly in Russian,...

...When Turkey entered the First War World on the side of the Central Powers, Jabotinsky realized that a unique historic opportunity was opened for the Jews to demand their historical national rights over Palestine. He was convinced that only by fighting on the side of the allies under their own flag could the Jews attain these rights. Consequently, Jabotinsky organized, together with Joseph Trumpeldor and Pinjas Rutenberg, the Jewish Legion that fought on the side of the Allies and participated in the conquest of Palestine from the Turks. He enlisted in it, and was decorated for his feats on the...