Ze'ev Jabotinsky

Ze'ev Jabotinsky^[a] MBE (Hebrew: זְאֵב זַ׳בּוֹטִינְסְקִי, romanized: Ze'ev Zhabotinski;^[b] born Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky;^[c] 17 October 1880^[1]  – 3 August 1940)^[4] was a Revisionist Zionist leader, author, poet, orator, soldier, and founder of the Jewish Self-Defense Organization in Odesa.

Ze'ev Jabotinsky Владимир Жаботинский וואלף זשאַבאָטינסקי‎ MBE
Jabotinsky in 1935
Born	Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky (1880-10-17)17 October 1880^[1] Odesa, Russian Empire^[2]
Died	3 August 1940(1940-08-03) (aged 59)^[3] Hunter, New York, United States
Resting place	1940–1964: New Montefiore Cemetery, New York, United States 1964–present: Mt. Herzl, Jerusalem 31°46′26″N 35°10′50″E / 31.77389°N 35.18056°E / 31.77389; 35.18056
Citizenship	Russian Empire
Alma mater	Sapienza University
Occupations	Zionist activist military leader author journalist
Years active	1898–1940
Known for	Betar movement; Jewish right-wing secular politics
Political party	Hatzohar
Spouse	Hanna Markovna Halpern ​ ​ (m. 1907⁠–⁠1940)​
Children	Eri Jabotinsky
Awards	Member of the Order of the British Empire (1919)
Military career
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army  • Territorial Army
Years of service	1915–1919
Rank	Lieutenant
Unit	20th Battalion, London Regiment Jewish Legion
Battles/wars	World War I

With Joseph Trumpeldor, he co-founded the Jewish Legion of the British army in World War I.^[5] Later he established several Jewish organizations, including the paramilitary group Betar in Latvia, the youth movement Hatzohar and the militant organization Irgun in Mandatory Palestine.

Early life

 

Jabotinsky with his wife and son

 

Editorial staff of Razsvet in Saint Petersburg, 1912. Sitting (R–L): 1) Max (Mordecai) Soloveichik (Solieli), 2) Avraham Ben David Idelson, 3) Zeev Jabotinsky; Standing: 1) Arnold Zeidman, 2) Alexander Goldstein, 3) Shlomo Gefstein

Vladimir Yevgenyevich (Yevnovich) Zhabotinsky^[6] was born in Odesa,^[2] Kherson Governorate (modern Ukraine) into an assimilated Jewish family.^[7] His father, Yevno (Yevgeniy Grigoryevich) Zhabotinsky, hailed from Nikopol, Yekaterinoslav Governorate. He was a member of the Russian Society of Sailing and Trade and was primarily involved in wheat trading. His mother, Chava (Eva Markovna) Zach (1835–1926), came from Berdychiv, Kyiv Governorate. Jabotinsky's older brother Myron died when Vladimir was six months old, and his father died when he was six years old. His sister, Tereza (Tamara Yevgenyevna) Zhabotinskaya-Kopp, founded a private school for girls in Odesa. In 1885, the family moved to Germany due to his father's illness, returning a year later after his father's death.

Raised in a middle-class Jewish home, Jabotinsky was educated in Russian schools. Although he studied Hebrew as a child, he wrote in his autobiography that his upbringing was divorced from Jewish faith and tradition. His mother ran a stationery store in Odesa. Jabotinsky dropped out of school at the age of 17 with a guarantee of a job as a correspondent for a local Odesan newspaper,^[8] the Odesskiy Listok, and was sent to Bern and Rome as a correspondent. He also worked for the Odesskie Novosti after his return from Italy.^[9] Jabotinsky was a childhood friend of Russian journalist and poet Korney Chukovsky.^[10]

Studies in Rome and return to Odesa

From the autumn of 1898 onward, Jabotinsky was registered for three years as a law student at the Sapienza University of Rome,^[11] but hardly attended any classes and did not graduate, leading a bohemian lifestyle instead. In addition to Russian, Yiddish and Hebrew, he learned to speak fluent Italian.^[12]

After returning as a news reporter to Odesa, he was arrested in April 1902 for writing feuilletons in an anti-establishment tone, as well as contributing to a radical Italian journal. He was held isolated in a prison cell in the city for two months, where he communicated with other inmates through shouting and passing written notes.^[13]

In October 1907 Jabotinsky married Joanna (or Ania) Galperina.^[14]

Early activism and militancy

Zionist activism in Russia

Prior to the Kishinev pogrom of 1903, Jabotinsky joined the Zionist movement, where he soon gained a reputation as a powerful speaker and an influential leader.^[15] With more pogroms looming on the horizon, he established the Jewish Self-Defense Organization, a Jewish militant group, to safeguard Jewish communities throughout Russia. He became the source of great controversy in the Russian Jewish community as a result of these actions.

Around this time, he began learning modern Hebrew, and took a Hebrew name: Vladimir became Ze'ev ("wolf"). During the pogroms, he organized self-defence units in Jewish communities across Russia and fought for the civil rights of the Jewish population as a whole. His slogan was, "Better to have a gun and not need it than to need it and not have it!" Another slogan was, "Jewish youth, learn to shoot!"

In 1903, he was elected as a Russian delegate to the Sixth Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. After Theodor Herzl's death in 1904, he became the leader of the right-wing Zionists. That year he moved to Saint Petersburg and became one of the co-editors for the Russophone magazine Yevreiskaya Zhyzn (Jewish Life), which after 1907 became the official publishing body of the Zionist movement in Russia. In the pages of the newspaper, Jabotinsky wrote fierce polemics against supporters of assimilation and the Bund.

In 1905, he was one of the co-founders of the "Union for Rights Equality of Jewish People in Russia". The following year, he was one of the chief speakers at the 3rd All-Russian Conference of Zionists in Helsinki, Finland, which called upon the Jews of Europe to engage in Gegenwartsarbeit (work in the present) and to join together to demand autonomy for ethnic minorities in Russia.^[16] This liberal approach was later apparent in his position concerning the Arab citizens of the future Jewish State: Jabotinsky asserted that "Each one of the ethnic communities will be recognized as autonomous and equal in the eyes of the law."^[16]

In 1909, he fiercely criticized leading members of the Russian Jewish community for participating in ceremonies marking the centennial of the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. In the light of Gogol's antisemitic views, Jabotinsky claimed it was unseemly for Russian Jews to take part in these ceremonies, as it showed they had no Jewish self-respect.^{[citation needed]}

Representative of the ZO in the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1914

In 1909, Sultan Abdulhamid II was deposed. The year before that, following the Young Turk Revolution, the Berlin Executive office of the Zionist Organization (ZO), sent Jabotinsky to the Ottoman capital Constantinople where he became editor-in-chief of a new pro-Young-Turkish daily newspaper Le Jeune Turc (meaning Young Turk) which was founded and financed by Zionist officials like ZO president David Wolffsohn and his representative in Constantinople Victor Jacobson. The journalists writing for that paper included the famous German Social democrat and Russian-Jewish revolutionary Alexander Parvus, who lived in Constantinople from 1910 until 1914. The Jeune Turc was prohibited in 1915 by the pro-German Turkish military junta. Richard Lichtheim, who was to become Jabotinsky's representative in Germany in 1925, stayed in Constantinople as ZO representative and managed to keep the "Yishuv" (Jewish population of Palestine) out of trouble during the war years by constant diplomatic interventions with German, Turkish, and also American authorities, whose humanitarian support was crucial for the survival of the Jewish settlement project in Palestine during the war years.^[17]

World War I military career

 

Ze'ev Jabotinsky served in platoon 16 of the 20th Battalion of the London Regiment between 1916 and 1917

 

Lt Jabotinsky in the uniform of the Royal Fusiliers

 

Miniatures of the MBE, British War Medal and Victory Medal awarded to Jabotinsky

 

Testimonial to Jabotinsky from the 38th Battalion Royal Fusiliers

During World War I, he had the idea of establishing a Jewish Legion to fight alongside the British against the Ottomans who then controlled Palestine. In 1915, together with Joseph Trumpeldor, a one-armed veteran of the Russo-Japanese War, he created the Zion Mule Corps, which consisted of several hundred Jewish men, mainly Russians who had been exiled from Palestine by the Ottoman Empire and had settled in Egypt. The unit served with distinction in the Battle of Gallipoli. When the Zion Mule Corps was disbanded, Jabotinsky traveled to London, where he continued his efforts to establish Jewish units to fight in Palestine as part of the British Army. Although Jabotinsky did not serve with the Zion Mule Corps, Trumpeldor, Jabotinsky and 120 Zion Mule Corps members did serve in Platoon 16 of the 20th Battalion of the London Regiment. In 1917, the government agreed to establish three Jewish battalions, initiating the Jewish Legion.^[18]

As an honorary lieutenant in the 38th Royal Fusiliers, Jabotinsky saw action in Palestine in 1918.^[19] His battalion was one of the first to enter Transjordan.^[19]

He was demobilised in September 1919,^[20] soon after he complained to Field Marshal Allenby about the British Army's attitude towards Zionism and the Jewish Legion.^[21] His appeals to the British government failed to reverse the decision, but in December 1919^[22] he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his service.^[23]

Renewed activism and militancy

Jewish self-defense and 1920 Palestine riots

After Ze'ev Jabotinsky was discharged from the British Army in September 1919, he openly trained Jews in warfare and the use of small arms. On 6 April 1920, during the 1920 Palestine riots the British searched the offices and apartments of the Zionist leadership for arms, including the home of Chaim Weizmann, and in a building used by Jabotinsky's defense forces they found three rifles, two pistols, and 250 rounds of ammunition.^[24]

Nineteen men were arrested. The next day Jabotinsky protested to the police that he was their commander and therefore solely responsible, so they should be released. Instead, he, too, was arrested, and the nineteen were sentenced to three years in prison with Jabotinsky being given a 15-year prison term for possession of weapons, until a July 1920 general pardon was granted to both Jews and Arabs convicted in the rioting.^[25]

A committee of inquiry placed responsibility for the riots on the Zionist Commission, alleging that they provoked the Arabs. The court blamed "Bolshevism" claiming that it "flowed in Zionism's inner heart", and ironically identified the fiercely anti-socialist Jabotinsky with the socialist-aligned Poalei Zion ('Zionist Workers') party, which it called 'a definite Bolshevist institution.'^[26]

Founder of the Revisionist movement

 

Ze'ev Jabotinsky (second row in the very center, wearing glasses) at a Hatzohar Conference (likely in Paris, in the second half of the 1920s)

In 1920, Jabotinsky was elected to the first Assembly of Representatives in Palestine. The following year he was elected to the executive council of the Zionist Organization. He was also a founder of the newly registered Keren haYesod and served as its director of propaganda.^[27] Jabotinsky left the mainstream Zionist movement in 1923 due to differences of opinion between him and its chairman, Chaim Weizmann, establishing a new revisionist party called Alliance of Revisionists-Zionists and its Zionist youth paramilitary organization Betar.^[28]

His new party demanded that the mainstream Zionist movement recognize as its stated objective the establishment of a Jewish state on both banks of the Jordan River. His main goal was to establish a modern Jewish state with the help of the British Empire. His philosophy contrasted with that of the socialist oriented Labor Zionists, in that it focused its economic and social policy on the ideals of the Jewish middle class in Europe. His ideal for a Jewish state was a form of nation state based loosely on the British imperial model.^[29] His support base was mostly located in Poland, and his activities focused on attaining British support to help with the development of the Yishuv. Another area of major support for Jabotinsky was Latvia, where his speeches in Russian made an impression on the largely Russian-speaking Latvian Jewish community.^[30]

Jabotinsky was both a nationalist and a liberal democrat. He rejected authoritarian notions of state authority and its imposition on individual liberty; he said that "Every man is a king." He championed the notion of a free press and believed the new Jewish state would protect the rights and interests of minorities. As an economic liberal, he supported a free market with minimal government intervention, but also believed that the "'elementary necessities' of the average person...: food, shelter, clothing, the opportunity to educate his children, and medical aid in case of illness" should be supplied by the state.^[31]

In 1930, while he was visiting South Africa, he was informed by the British Colonial Office that he would not be allowed to return to Palestine.^[32]

1930s evacuation plan

 

Ze'ev Jabotinsky (bottom right) meeting with Betar leaders in Warsaw. Bottom left Menachem Begin (probably 1939).

During the 1930s, Jabotinsky was deeply concerned with the situation of the Jewish community in Eastern Europe. In 1936, Jabotinsky prepared the so-called "evacuation plan", which called for the evacuation of 1.5 million Jews from Poland, the Baltic States, Nazi Germany, Hungary and Romania to Palestine over the span of the next ten years. The plan was first proposed on 8 September 1936 in the conservative Polish newspaper Czas, the day after Jabotinsky organized a conference where more details of the plan were laid out; the emigration would take 10 years and would include 750,000 Jews from Poland, with 75,000 between age of 20–39 leaving the country each year. Jabotinsky stated that his goal was to reduce Jewish population in the countries involved, to levels that would make them disinterested in its further reduction.^[33]

The same year he toured Eastern Europe, meeting with the Polish Foreign Minister, Colonel Józef Beck; the Regent of Hungary, Admiral Miklós Horthy; and Prime Minister Gheorghe Tătărescu of Romania to discuss the evacuation plan. The plan gained the approval of all three governments, but caused considerable controversy within the Jewish community of Poland, on the grounds that it played into the hands of antisemites. In particular, the fact that the 'evacuation plan' had the approval of the Polish government was taken by many Polish Jews as indicating Jabotinsky had gained the endorsement of what they considered to be the wrong people.

The evacuation of Jewish communities in Poland, Hungary and Romania was to take place over a ten-year period. However, the British government vetoed it, and the Zionist Organization's chairman, Chaim Weizmann, dismissed it.^[34] Chaim Weizmann suggested that Jabotinsky was willing to accept Madagascar as one destination for limited emigration for Jews, due to political issues involved with settlement in Palestine, and dispatches from Warsaw by British ambassador Hugh Kennard, corroborate Weizmann's account.^[35][36] Two years later, in 1938, Jabotinsky allegedly stated in a speech that Polish Jews were "living on the edge of the volcano", and warned that the situation in Poland could drastically worsen sometime in the near future. "Catastrophe is approaching. ... I see a terrible picture ... the volcano that will soon spew out its flames of extermination," he said.^[37] Jabotinsky went on to warn Jews in Europe that they should leave for Palestine as soon as possible.^[34] There is much discussion about whether or not Jabotinsky actually predicted the Holocaust. In his writings and public appearances he warned against the dangers of an outbreak of violence against the Jewish population of Central and Eastern Europe. However, as late as August 1939, he was certain that war would be averted.^[38] The General Jewish Labour Bund ridiculed Jabotinsky and his warnings calling him a "Purim General."^[39]

A study published in 2023 by Goldstein and Huri concluded that Jabotinsky never made the 1938 speech attributed to him.^[40] Although Jabotinsky gave a speech on that day, the text was different.^[40] The earliest mention of the alleged prophetic content that Goldstein and Huri could locate was published in 1958 by the same associate of Jabotinsky who had published the original text in 1938, possibly to bolster the campaign to relocate Jabotinsky's remains to Israel.^[40]

1939 plan for a revolt against the British

In 1939, Britain enacted the MacDonald White Paper, in which Jewish immigration to Palestine under the British Mandate was to be restricted to 75,000 for the next five years, after which further Jewish immigration would depend on Arab consent. In addition, land sales to Jews were to be restricted, and Palestine would be cultivated for independence as a binational state.

Jabotinsky reacted by proposing a plan for an armed Jewish revolt in Palestine. He sent the plan to the Irgun High Command in six coded letters. Jabotinsky proposed that he and other "illegals" would arrive by boat in the heart of Palestine – preferably Tel Aviv – in October 1939. The Irgun would ensure that they successfully landed and escaped, by whatever means necessary. They would then occupy key centers of British power in Palestine, chief among them Government House in Jerusalem, raise the Jewish national flag, and fend off the British for at least 24 hours whatever the cost. Zionist leaders in Western Europe and the United States would then declare an independent Jewish state, and would function as a provisional government-in-exile. Although Irgun commanders were impressed by the plan, they were concerned over the heavy losses they would doubtless incur in carrying it out. Avraham Stern proposed simultaneously landing 40,000 armed young immigrants in Palestine to help launch the uprising. The Polish government supported his plan, and it began training Irgun members and supplying them arms. Irgun submitted the plan for the approval of its commander David Raziel, who was imprisoned by the British. However, the beginning of World War II in September 1939 quickly put an end to these plans.^[41][42]

Literary career

In 1898, Jabotinsky was sent to Rome as a correspondent for Odessky Listok, writing columns under the pen name "V. Egal, "Vl. Egal" "V.E." for more than a year. His first application for a job at Odesskiya Novosti was turned down, but after the editor, J.M. Heifetz, saw his writing for Odessky Listok, he hired him. At that point, Jabotinsky changed his pen name to Altalena, which he confesses was a mistake. He thought the Italian word meant "elevator," but explained to the editor that the real meaning, "swing," suited him well, since he was "'by no means stable or constant', but rather rocking and balancing."^[43]

In 1914, Jabotinsky published the first Hebrew translation of Edgar Allan Poe's poems The Raven and Annabel Lee.^[44]

From 1923, Jabotinsky was editor of the revived Jewish weekly Rassvet (Dawn), published first in Berlin, then in Paris. Besides his journalistic work, he published novels under his previous pseudonym Altalena; his historical novel Samson Nazorei (Samson the Nazirite, 1927), set in Biblical times, describes Jabotinsky's ideal of an active, daring, warrior form of Jewish life. His novel Pyatero (The Five, written 1935, published 1936 in Paris) has been described as "a work that probably has the truest claim to being the great Odessa novel. ... It contains poetic descriptions of early-twentieth-century Odesa, with nostalgia-tinged portraits of its streets and smells, its characters and passions."^[45] Although it was little noticed at the time, it has received renewed appreciation for its literary qualities at the start of the twenty-first century, being reprinted in Russia and Ukraine and in 2005 translated into English (the first translation into a Western language).^[45]

Family

While in Odesa, Jabotinsky married Joanna (or Ania) Galperina in October 1907.^[14] They had one child, Eri Jabotinsky (1910-1969), who later became a member of the Irgun-affiliated Bergson Group. Eri Jabotinsky briefly served in the 1st Knesset of Israel; he died on 6 June 1969.^[46]

Death and burial

 

Obituary of Jabotinsky, 4 August 1940

 

Grave of Jabotinsky, Mount Herzl, Jerusalem

On 12 May 1940, Jabotinsky offered Winston Churchill the support of a 130,000 strong Jewish volunteer corps to fight the Nazis; he also proposed Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion the creation of a united front for policy and relief.^[47]

Jabotinsky died of a heart attack shortly before midnight on 3 August 1940, while he was visiting a Jewish self-defense camp run by Betar in Hunter, New York.^[48][49][50]

Jabotinsky was buried in New Montefiore Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York,^[51] in accordance with a clause of his will. Ben-Gurion refused to allow Jabotinsky to be reburied in Israel.^[52] By order of Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and in accordance with a second clause of his will, the remains of Jabotinsky and his wife were reburied at Mount Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem in 1964.^[53] A monument to Jabotinsky was erected at his original burial site in New York.^[54]

Views and opinions

According to Israeli historian Benny Morris, documents show that Jabotinsky favored the idea of the transfer of Arab populations out of the proposed state if required for its establishment.^[55] Jabotinsky's other writings state, "we do not want to eject even one Arab from either the left or the right bank of the Jordan River. We want them to prosper both economically and culturally. We envision the regime of Jewish Palestine [Eretz Israel ha-Ivri, or the 'Jewish Land of Israel'] as follows: most of the population will be Jewish, but equal rights for all Arab citizens will not only be guaranteed, they will also be fulfilled."^[31] Indeed, in 1927 he reacted angrily to a published report that he had called for the expulsion of Arabs from Palestine. In a letter to the Zionist newspaper Haolam, he wrote: "I never said that, or anything that could be interpreted in this sense. My position is, on the contrary, that no one will expel from the Land of Israel its Arab inhabitants, either all or a portion of them -- this is, first of all, immoral, and secondly, impossible."^[56] Jabotinsky was convinced that there was no way for the Jews to regain any part of Palestine without opposition from the Arabs. In 1934, he wrote a draft constitution for the Jewish state which declared that Arabs would be on an equal footing with their Jewish counterparts "throughout all sectors of the country's public life." The two communities would share the state's duties, both military and civil service, and enjoy its prerogatives. Jabotinsky proposed that Hebrew and Arabic should enjoy equal status, and that "in every cabinet where the prime minister is a Jew, the vice-premiership shall be offered to an Arab and vice versa."^[57]

Jabotinsky viewed Zionism as a complete cultural departure from the Jewish way of life in Europe and saw the new "Hebrew" as a radical redefinition of the Jewish culture and values at the time. In 1905 he wrote,

To imagine what a true Hebrew is, to picture his image in our minds, we have no example from which to draw. Instead, we must use the method of ipcha mistavra (Aramaic for deriving something from its opposite): We take as our starting point the Yid (used here as pejorative for Jew) of today, and try to imagine in our minds his exact opposite. Let us erase from that picture all the personality traits that are so typical of a Yid, and let us insert into it all the desirable traits whose absence is so typical in him. Because the Yid is ugly, sickly, and lacks handsomeness (הדרת פנים) we shall endow the ideal image of the Hebrew with masculine beauty, stature, massive shoulders, vigorous movements, bright colors, and shades of color. The Yid is frightened and downtrodden; the Hebrew ought to be proud and independent. The Yid is disgusting to all; the Hebrew should charm all. The Yid has accepted submission; the Hebrew ought to know how to command. The Yid likes to hide with bated breath from the eyes of strangers; the Hebrew, with brazenness and greatness, should march ahead to the entire world, look them straight and deep in their eyes and hoist them his banner: “I am a Hebrew!”^[58][59]

His views were adopted by some Zionist publications, including Cahiers du Bétar, a monthly in Tunisia.^[60]

Awards and recognition

 

Jabotinsky House at King George V St. in Tel Aviv. The building is also known as "Ze'ev's Stronghold", and is named after Ze'ev Jabotinsky. It used to be the center of the Herut Party, and is now the central institute of the Likud Party.

 

Jabotinsky's grandson Ze'ev with his daughter Tal beside Jabotinsky's uniforms and military decorations at the Jabotinsky Institute and Museum

• In Israel, 57 streets, parks and squares are named after Jabotinsky, more than for any other person in Jewish or Israeli history, making him the most-commemorated historical figure in Israel.^[61]
• The Jabotinsky Medal is awarded for outstanding achievements in the sphere of literature and research.
• The Jabotinsky Institute, in Tel Aviv, is a repository of documents and research relating to the history of Betar, the Revisionist movement, the Irgun, and Herut.^[62] It is identified with Likud.^[63]
• A bronze bust of Jabotinsky by Johan Oldert was presented to the Metzudat Ze'ev in Tel Aviv in 2008 and remains on display.^[64]
• Jabotinsky Day (Hebrew: יום ז'בוטינסקי) is an Israeli national holiday celebrated annually on the twenty ninth of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, to commemorate the life and vision of Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky.^[65]

Legacy

In his study of the formative leaders of the Zionist movement and the State of Israel, Zeev Tzahor describes Jabotinsky as "a dazzling intellectual, an exceptional writer and a brilliant statesman...A charming man fluent in many languages, sensitive to cultural nuances, and profoundly knowledgeable in a broad array of subjects." However, despite this profusion of talents, he never became leader of the Zionist movement.^[66]

Published works

• Turkey and the War, London, T.F. Unwin, Ltd. [1917]
• Samson the Nazarite, London, M. Secker, [1930]
• The Jewish War Front, London, T.F. Unwin, Ltd. [1940]
• The War and The Jew, New York, The Dial Press [c1942]
• The Story of the Jewish Legion, New York, B. Ackerman, Inc. [c1945]
• The Battle for Jerusalem. Vladimir Jabotinsky, John Henry Patterson, Josiah Wedgwood, Pierre van Paassen explains why a Jewish army is indispensable for the survival of a Jewish nation and preservation of world civilization, American Friends of a Jewish Palestine, New York, The Friends, [1941]
• A Pocket Edition of Several Stories, Mostly Reactionary, Tel-Aviv: Reproduced by Jabotinsky Institute in Israel, [1984]. Reprint. Originally published: Paris, [1925]
• The Five, A Novel of Jewish Life in Turn-of-the-Century Odesa, Paris, [1936]
• Jabotinsky translated Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" into Hebrew and Russian, and parts of Dante's Divine Comedy into modern Hebrew verse.
• "The East Bank of the Jordan" (also known as "Two Banks has the Jordan"), a poem by Jabotinsky that became the slogan and one of the most famous songs of Betar
• Vladimir Jabotinsky's Story of My Life, Brian Horowitz & Leonid Katsis, eds., Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2015.

See also

• Altalena Affair
• Itamar Ben-Avi
• 1929 Hebron massacre
• Iron Wall (essay)

References

Notes

1. /ˌ(d)ʒæbəˈtɪnski, ˌ(d)ʒɑːbə-/ ZHA(H)B-ə-TIN-skee, JA(H)B-.
2. Yiddish: וואלף זשאַבאָטינסקי, romanized: Wolf Zhabotinski.
3. Russian: Влади́мир Евге́ньевич Жаботи́нский.

Citations

1. Владимир Евгеньевич Жаботинский. Russian Writers, 1800-1917. Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2, p. 250 // Русские писатели. 1800—1917. Биографический словарь. Т. 2: Г – К. — М.: Большая российская энциклопедия, 1992 (in Russian)
2. Torossian, Ronn (19 May 2014). "Jabotinsky: A Life, by Hillel Halkin - Read and Wonder". Israel National News.
3. "Ze'ev Jabotinsky". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
4. Most of the books say that Jabotinsky died on 4 August, because they wrongly convert the date from the Hebrew calendar. See details below.
5. Klinger, Jerry (October 2010). "The Struggle for the Jewish Legion and The Birth of the IDF". Jewish Magazine. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
6. Nataliya and Yuri Kruglyak (27 July 1939). (in Russian). Odessitclub.org. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
7. . Beit Hatfutsot. Archived from the original on 17 November 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
8. Halkin 2014, pp. 16–17.
9. Halkin 2014, pp. 28–29.
10. Jabotinsky, Vladimir (5 December 2015). Vladimir Jabotinsky's Story of My Life. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 9780814341391 – via Google Books.
11. Halkin 2014, pp. 20.
12. Schechtman (1956), pp. 49, 60.
13. Halkin 2014, p. 33.
14. Жаботинский З. Повесть моих дней. — Библиотека-Алия, 1985
15. Kishinev 1903: The Birth of a Century, quoting from the memoirs of Simon Dubnow: "It was the night of April 7, 1903. Because of Russian Easter, the newspapers had not been issued for the previous two days so that we remained without any news from the rest of the world. That night the Jewish audience assembled in the Beseda Club, to listen to the talk of a young Zionist, the Odesa 'wunderkind' V. Jabotinsky [….] The young agitator had great success with his audience. In a particularly moving manner, he drew on Pinsker's parable of the Jew as a shadow wandering through space and developed it further. As for my own impression, this one-sided treatment of our historical problem depressed me: Did he not scarcely stop short of inducing fear in our unstable Jewish youth of their own national shadow?… During the break, while pacing up and down in the neighboring room, I noticed sudden unrest in the audience: the news spread that fugitives had arrived in Odesa from nearby Kishinev and had reported of a bloody pogrom in progress there."
16. . Liberal.org.il. Archived from the original on 20 June 2009. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
17. For references, see Richard Lichtheims autobiographical books in Hebrew and German (see the Hebrew Wikipedia entry of Richard Lichtheim)
18. D. Flisiak, Działalność syjonistów-rewizjonistów w Polsce w latach 1944/1945- 1950, Lublin 2020, s. 21-22
19. Schechtman (1956), pp. 268–271.
20. "No. 31619". The London Gazette. 24 October 1919. p. 13126.
21. Schechtman (1956), pp. 279–282.
22. "SIXTH SUPPLEMENT TO The London Gazette Of TUESDAY, the 9th of DECEMBER, 1919, issue 31684" (PDF). LONDON GAZETTE. 12 December 1919. p. 15455. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
23. Schechtman (1956), pp. 283–284.
24. D. Flisiak, Działalność syjonistów-rewizjonistów w Polsce w latach 1944/1945- 1950, Lublin 2020, s. 23-24.
25. Zev Golan,Free Jerusalem, pp. 28–31
26. Tom Segev, One Palestine, Complete, Metropolitan Books, 1999. p.141
27. . Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 10 December 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
28. Puchalski, P. (2018). "Review: Jabotinsky's Children: Polish Jews and the Rise of Right-Wing Zionism". The Polish Review. University of Illinois Press. 63 (3): 88–91. doi:10.5406/polishreview.63.3.0088. JSTOR 10.5406/polishreview.63.3.0088.
29. 'England is becoming continental! Not long ago the prestige of the English ruler of the "colored" colonies stood very high. Hindus, Arabs, Malays were conscious of his superiority and obeyed, not unprotestingly, yet completely. The whole scheme of training of the future rulers was built on the principle "carry yourself so that the inferior will feel your unobtainable superiority in every motion".’ Jabotinsky, cited by Lenni Brenner, The Iron Wall London, ch.7, 1984
30. D. Flisiak, Działalność syjonistów-rewizjonistów w Polsce w latach 1944/1945- 1950, Lublin 2020, s. 24-26.
31. Kremnitzer, Mordechai; Fuchs, Amir (2013), (PDF), Israel Democracy Institute, archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2013
32. "H-Net Reviews". H-net.msu.edu. July 1997. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
33. Emanuel Melzer (1976). No Way Out: The Politics of Polish Jewry 1935-1939. Hebrew Union College Press. p. 136.
34. "Jabotinsky's Lost Moment: June, 1940". The Tower.
35. Adam Rovner. In the Shadow of Zion: Promised Lands Before Israel. p. 133.
36. Laurence Weinbaum (1993). A Marriage of Convenience: The New Zionist Organization and the Polish Government 1936-1939. East European Monographs. p. 180.
37. Amotz Asa-El (28 April 2018). "MIDDLE ISRAEL: No place for a Jew". The Jerusalem Post.
38. Weinbaum, Laurence (April 2004). Jabotinsky and Jedwabne. Midstream.
39. "Jewish Bund Manifesto against Vladimir Jabotinsky". zionism-israel.com.
40. Amir Goldstein and Efi Huri (2023). "The "fires of destruction," Warsaw, August 1938? On the posthumous invention of Jabotinsky's well-known annihilation prophecy". Holocaust Studies: 1–20. doi:10.1080/17504902.2023.2249291. S2CID 261439826.
41. Penkower, Monty Noam: Decision on Palestine Deferred: America, Britain and Wartime Diplomacy, 1939-1945
42. Golan, Zev: Free Jerusalem pp. 153, 168
43. Schechtman (1956), pp. 58.
44. Segal, Miryam (2 January 2010). A New Sound in Hebrew Poetry: Poetics, Politics, Accent. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253003584 – via Google Books.
45. King, Charles (2011). Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-393-07084-2 – via Internet Archive.
46. "Ari Jabotinsky". www.knesset.gov.il. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
47. The American Jewish Army that Never Was, Dusty Sklar for Jewish Currents, 4 June 2018, re-accessed 9 July 2021.
48. "Jabotinsky Dead". The New York Times. 5 August 1940. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
49. "JABOTINSKY, ZIONIST HEAD, DIES". jpress.org.il. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
50. "Vladimir Jabotinsky Dies of Heart Attack at 59; Was Visiting Youth Camp" (PDF). jta.org.
51. "Jabotinsky Rites Today - Veterans' Organizations to Take Part in Services for Zionist". The New York Times. 6 August 1940. p. 20. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
52. Ben-Gurion's Battle Against Bringing Jabotinsky's Bones to Israel, Ushi Derman for "Museum of the Jewish People", 7 March 2019, re-accessed 9 July 2021.
53. Spiegel, Irving (3 July 1964). "Israelis to Honor Patriot's Memory - Bodies of Jabotinsky and His Wife Going Back Home". The New York Times. p. 25. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
54. "Jabotinsky Memorial Unveiled". The New York Times. 28 July 1941. p. 28. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
55. Morris, Benny (13 January 2004). "For the record". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
56. "Mikhtav el Ha-Maarechet" (Letter to the editor), Haolam, 7 Jan. 1927
57. Karsh, Efraim (Spring 2005). "Benny Morris's Reign of Error, Revisited: The Post-Zionist Critique". Middle East Quarterly. XII: 31–42. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
58. Jabotinsky, Valdimir (1905). Dr. Herzl.
59. "From Herzl to Rabin". archive.nytimes.com. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
60. Emmanuel Debono (7 August 2014). "L'importation du conflit israélo-palestinien en question". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 27 August 2022.
61. "Jabotinsky most popular street name in Israel", Ynetnews, 28 November 2007
62. Ze'ev Tsahor, "Rise of a right-wing phoenix", Haaretz, 15 August 2003
63. Or Kashti, "In Israel, not all religious funding was created equal", Haaretz, 25 November 2012
64. "Center Bulletin, Vol. 4, Issue 30, May 7, 2008". Menachim Begin Heritage Center website. 7 May 2008. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
65. "Knesset Creates Jabotinsky Day".
66. In and Out of the Political 'Box', Haaretz

Sources

• Halkin, Hillel (2014). Jabotinsky: A Life. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-13662-3.
• Schechtman, Joseph (1956). Rebel and Statesman: the Vladimir Jabotinsky Story. New York: Thomas Yoseloff.

Further reading

• Flisiak Dominik, Działalność syjonistów-rewizjonistów w Polsce w latach 1944/1945- 1950, Lublin 2020
• Katz, Shmuel (1996), Lone Wolf: A Biography of Vladimir (Zeʼev) Jabotinsky, New York: Barricade Books, ISBN 9781569800423
• Schechtman, Joseph B. (1956–1961). Rebel and Statesman: The Vladimir Jabotinsky Story. New York: T. Yoseloff.
• Jewish Defense Organization booklet. Zev Jabotinsky: Militant Fighter for Jews & Israel.
• Shavit, Yaacov (1988). Jabotinsky and the Revisionist Movement, 1925–1948. London, England: Totawa, N.J., F. Cass.
• Brenner, Lenni (1983). Zionism in the Age of the Dictators. Lawrence Hill & Co; Rev Ed.
• Michael Stanislawski (2005). Vladimir Jabotinsky. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-8903-7.
• Sultanowitz, Rabbi Ze'ev (2011). "The secret of the vision, logic and deeds". The Life of Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Jerusalem.
• Nedava, Joseph (1986). "Vladimir Jabotinsky: The Man and His Struggles". Tel Aviv.
• Halkin, Hillel (2014). Jabotinsky: A Life. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300210019.
• Halkin, Hillel (June 2014). "Who was Jabotinsky?". Mosaic magazine.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zeev Jabotinsky.

 

Wikiquote has quotations related to Ze'ev Jabotinsky.

• Works by or about Ze'ev Jabotinsky at Internet Archive
• Works by Ze'ev Jabotinsky at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)  
• at the Wayback Machine (archived 16 August 2007)
• at the Wayback Machine (archived 2 January 2008), 1911
• The Ideology of Betar 31 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
• , 1923
• A selection of Jabotinsky's writings:
• Memorial pages for Jabotinsky in Knesset website (in English)
• The Jabotinsky Institute (in Hebrew)
• (in English)
• Jewish Defense Organization runs Camp Jabotinsky, (Zionist Leaders: Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Ze'ev Jabotinsky's biography Knesset website (in English)
• Law honoring Zionist forefather passed Yediot Aharonot, 23 March 2005
• Jabotinsky's biography 23 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine Betar UK
• Fighting Hitler with cartoons, Haaretz
• THE JUBILEE: THE BIBLICAL PLAN FOR EXPANDED OWNERSHIP – Jabotinsky's economical view.
• "Ze'ev Jabotinsky: A story of a Leader". Keren Hayesod. 24 September 2012. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
• "Yisrael Medad, Deputy Editor, English Anthology Volumes of Jabotinsky's Writings". ILTV Israel Daily. 25 December 2018. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 31 August 2019.