Joseph Trumpeldor: Difference between revisions

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The battalion was founded and filled with volunteers from the exiles of Palestine, and Trumpeldor was appointed captain and acting deputy to the commander, Lt. Colonel Paterson. He went with the battalion to the Gallipoli front, doing great things both in educating the volunteers in military discipline and order and in protecting them and their honor towards the English officers and in actions for their families. One time he resigned because an English officer insulted him, and at the request of his soldiers, he accepted reconciliation from the commander and stayed. While serving in difficulties and dangers, he even wrote poetic notes in his diary about the beauties of the landscape. He showed contempt for danger and moved through the service routes even on the '''front lines''', and on one occasion he was even wounded in the shoulder. Only at the urging of the senior officers did he agree to leave his men and go to the hospital for a short time. He traveled one time to Alexandria and recruited additional volunteers. He was respected by all the members of the command for his personal and military qualities that were beyond praise, but the existence of the battalion was a thorn in the side of those officers who opposed the Jews’ aspirations regarding the Land of Israel, and they plotted to drive a wedge between him and the men of his battalion and even to undermine the status of the battalion, and he held his ground against the scheming and conspiracies. But finally the order came to return the battalion to Egypt and disband it. In Egypt he made further efforts to save the existence of the battalion and to obtain other uses for it in the war, and when he failed, he went to London and participated with Jabotinsky in advocacy and efforts to create a new Jewish battalion to serve in arms on the Palestine front. But at that time the moment was not yet ripe — neither on the part of the British War Office nor among the Russian-Jewish subjects living in England. Jabotinsky remained in London and continued his stubborn efforts until success. He saw opportunities to gather and inspire a great force among the Jews of Russia, who had been freed from oppression and restrictions following the February Revolution of 1917. He traveled to Russia via the North Sea, where Allied ships were exposed to danger from German warships and submarines.
The battalion was founded and filled with volunteers from the exiles of Palestine, and Trumpeldor was appointed captain and acting deputy to the commander, Lt. Colonel Paterson. He went with the battalion to the Gallipoli front, doing great things both in educating the volunteers in military discipline and order and in protecting them and their honor towards the English officers and in actions for their families. One time he resigned because an English officer insulted him, and at the request of his soldiers, he accepted reconciliation from the commander and stayed. While serving in difficulties and dangers, he even wrote poetic notes in his diary about the beauties of the landscape. He showed contempt for danger and moved through the service routes even on the '''front lines''', and on one occasion he was even wounded in the shoulder. Only at the urging of the senior officers did he agree to leave his men and go to the hospital for a short time. He traveled one time to Alexandria and recruited additional volunteers. He was respected by all the members of the command for his personal and military qualities that were beyond praise, but the existence of the battalion was a thorn in the side of those officers who opposed the Jews’ aspirations regarding the Land of Israel, and they plotted to drive a wedge between him and the men of his battalion and even to undermine the status of the battalion, and he held his ground against the scheming and conspiracies. But finally the order came to return the battalion to Egypt and disband it. In Egypt he made further efforts to save the existence of the battalion and to obtain other uses for it in the war, and when he failed, he went to London and participated with Jabotinsky in advocacy and efforts to create a new Jewish battalion to serve in arms on the Palestine front. But at that time the moment was not yet ripe — neither on the part of the British War Office nor among the Russian-Jewish subjects living in England. Jabotinsky remained in London and continued his stubborn efforts until success. He saw opportunities to gather and inspire a great force among the Jews of Russia, who had been freed from oppression and restrictions following the February Revolution of 1917. He traveled to Russia via the North Sea, where Allied ships were exposed to danger from German warships and submarines.
In June 1917, Trumpeldor arrived in Petrograd, the vibrant capital of Russia (at the time), which was bustling between revolutions, and his name, adorned with heroic legends, preceded him. As the Russian Democratic Republic continued to fight on the side of the Western Allies, he campaigned among the Jews and the people of the new Russian government to create a Jewish legion of one hundred thousand men to be sent to the Caucasus front against the Turks and from there to pass through Armenia and Syria, to liberate Israel for the Jews and to lead there the democratic-socialist regime of the Russian Revolution. Meanwhile, together with the writer [https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/1043 Shlomo Zanvil Rapoport] (author of “The Dybbuk”), he tried to create a Jewish socialist-national party in Russia, which would serve as a public rearguard for his Zionist-socialist tendencies in relation to Israel and to rebuild the life of the Jews in Russia and transform them from merchants into workers on a voluntary basis. However, the new Russian government was not strong enough to be able to give a major military boost on the Caucasus front, because it also had a war at home against army groups led by royalist generals, who said they would march on the capital and restore the Tsarist regime. Trumpeldor volunteered to lead a battalion against the royalist army in order to save the revolution. However, the royalist army did not come, and instead of a revolution, new revolutions came to Russia, which brought the Bolsheviks to power in the two capitals, Moscow and Petrograd, who were not prepared to continue the war against the enemies from outside. Anti-Semitic agitation and riots against Jews began throughout Russia. Then Trumpeldor organized the liberated Jewish soldiers for a defensive war on the home front against the rioters, and as for the Land of Israel — it must be conquered not by arms but by work, and to this end he founded “[[HaḤalutz]]” and convened his All-Russian Conference in Petrograd (which was soon to change its name to Leningrad), where the ideological and practical foundation for HaḤalutz operation was laid, and later he continued propaganda and work for the HaḤalutz also in the Ukraine, where General Denikin, the martyr, still ruled. An ally of the Western powers.
The Bolshevik government viewed the emergence of a national Jewish force with disdain and began to persecute HaḤalutz and Zionism, and only with great difficulty did it temporarily permit the existence of Jewish self-defense groups. In southern Russia, Trumpeldor found more understanding with the authorities of General Denikin, but there too there were numerous troubles of pogroms and opposition from the authorities to Jewish self-defense, although the military government did not have sufficient strength and will to protect the Jews, and Trumpeldor was more than once forced to personally intervene with the military government to save from death sentences the members of the Ḥalutz farm in the Ukraine and Crimea, who were accused of espionage and other offenses against the laws of the military regime. Meanwhile, he continued to organize groups and training camps in southern Russia, maintaining as many contacts as possible with his friends in northern Russia, In order to create organizational and practical connections for the fulfillment of his goals with his friends and institutions in Palestine, he left Yalta in Crimea for Istanbul in August 1919, in order to continue his journey to Palestine from there.
In Istanbul, Trumpeldor received information about the true state of the land, both internally and externally. He saw the difficult situation of the pioneers who had left Russia before him and still did not have the opportunity or permits to immigrate to the land. In the meantime, while waiting, they were suffering from shortages and were expected to deteriorate due to the lack of sufficient understanding and preparation on the part of the people for proper assistance to their pioneers. He immediately threw himself into activities with representatives of the institutions to improve assistance to the pioneers and even organized them into cooperatives for work in agriculture and crafts. He arranged for a group of pioneers in the “Mesila Ḥadasha” settlement near the city, provided accurate information about the situation in Russia, completed the ideological education of the pioneers who had gathered there from Russia and Eastern European countries. In his letters to his friends in Russia he denied the exaggerated rumors that were spread there about a Jewish government in the Land of Israel, informed them of the restrictions and difficulties on the way to immigrate, and called on them to continue their physical and mental training and to be ready to immigrate when the road opened.