While still a child I had read his article on Joseph Trumpeldor, the one- armed hero of Tel Hai, who had died with these words on his lips: “It is good to die for our country.”
The article opened with an explanation of the Kaddish. On Yahrzeit one says Kaddish. What is the connection between the Kaddish, a song of praise to the L-rd, and the mourning over one’s dead? Every man in this world is a soldier fighting for the divine ideals, for the sanctity and the purity of life. When a man dies, his place in the ranks of the fighters becomes vacant. His son rises in his stead and declares: I will fill his place; I will live and fight for the ideals my father had lived and fought for. Yithgadel Veyithkadesh…. “By remembering Trumpeldor, by keeping his Yahrzeit”- the article continued- “we express our allegiance to the ideals for which he had lived and died.”
Tens of times I had read the article. It was one of the many articles Vladimir Jabotinsky had written to teach Jewish youth a new Aleph Beth: to renounce once and forever the role of inactive martyrdom and of passive resistance to oppression and persecution, and to rise in the defense of the Jewish people and homeland.
Twenty years ago I heard the explanation of the Kaddish from Jabotinsky himself. It was a short time after the outbreak of World War II. Y. Yacoby, a friend and collaborator of Jabotinsky, had died in Rumania where he had been engaged in the organization of illegal immigration into Palestine. A memorial meeting was held in London with Jabotinsky as the main speaker.
Jabotinsky pictured the life of his friend together with whom he had organized the Jewish self- defense organization in Odessa after the Kishinev pogrom in 1903, and who twenty years later was one of the first to assist him in the founding of the Zionist- Revisionist organization. At the end of the first part of his speech, Jabotinsky gave his explanation of the Kaddish, declaring that he would continue on the way on which he had marched with his friend towards Jewish liberation and statehood.
Then Jabotinsky recited the first two words of the Kaddish. He, a master of languages, translated these two words into three English words, three English words which expressed the sublime meaning and significance of the Kaddish in their entirety. And he, the most powerful orator of our generation, said those three words in crescendo, raising higher his voice with every word, every word cutting deeper into the stillness of the hall, permeated with reverence and veneration for the speaker. While saying these words his whole body rose. And when he had said the last of the two Hebrew and three English words he stood on his toes, “Yithgadel Veyithkadesh… Great, greater, greatest!
Never have I heard the meaning and significance of the Kaddish better translated and expressed as by these three words, spoken by Jabotinsky in his inimitable way, “Great, greater, greatest!”
Thus he concluded the first part of his speech. The second part comprised an analysis of the Jewish situation and a formulation of a policy and program of action for the war.
I had heard Jabotinsky on the continent before the war. Since the rise of Nazism in Germany he was steadily “on the go”. He spent his days in railway compartments, visiting and addressing all major Jewish centers in Europe. “In the Twelfth Hour” was the title of his addresses. He warned of the outbreak of a volcano of anti-Semitism. He foresaw the catastrophe which was to bury European Jewry. He pleaded with Jewry to support his plan for the evacuation of Eastern European Jewry to Palestine before it might be too late. He was received by the heads of governments and ministers of most European states and they expressed their willingness to collaborate and readiness to exert pressure on the British government to open the gates of Palestine. His own people, however, in its great majority, repudiated and abused him.
In 1935 he appealed to his brothers: “Jewish people give us thy greatness, make us strong and make us mighty and we will liberate your sons.” He was received with ridicule and sneers.
Years later, standing among the poor and down-trodden Jewish masses of Poland, he pleaded: “There speaks unto you not a Jewish leader nor a Klal-Tuer, A Neshama Redt Tsu Eich, a heart is begging you: Leave, leave…” The magic of his personality and his brilliant oratory entranced the masses. In the thousands they came to hear him. They recognized the greatness of the man who talked to them. He was the creator of the Jewish Legion in World War I.
He organized the Jewish self-defense in Jerusalem during the pogrom of 1920. For this he was sentenced by the British military authorities of Palestine to 15 years of hard labor. After the pogroms of 1929 the British exiled him from Palestine. He visited all countries of the world, but Palestine for which he had fought he was not allowed to enter. With a stateless passport- symbol of a wandering Jew, he journeyed through the countries of the Diaspora calling upon his brothers to take their fate into their own hands. The Jewish masses came to hear him and applauded him but they did not give him their practical support. Jewish “politicians” and Klal- Tuers did their best to blacken his name and to defame him in order to prevent accusation as a plot enjoying the support and collaboration of the anti- Semites, who wanted to get rid of the Jews of their countries. They labeled his call to Jewish youth to arm and be ready to break the gates of Palestine by force Fascism.
Jabotinsky did not care for the personal insults and abuse; he was only concerned by the Jewish situation in Europe which was daily growing worse and by the fact that the Jewish people did not realize the graveness of the hour. There were days when he would repeat many times in meeting after meeting: “We are living in the twelfth hour. Not much time left to save ourselves.”
Jabotinsky’s days and nights, especially from 1937 on, were filled with feverish activity on behalf of his people.
In 1936 Arab riots had broken out in Palestine. The official Zionist leadership decided upon “Havlagah” (restraint) in the face of Arab terror. Jabotinsky’s disciples advocated counter- terror. In 1937 the Irgun Zvat Leumi carried out its first large- scale retaliatory action against the Arab marauders. In its wake, hundreds of Revisionists were arrested throughout Palestine.
Early in the summer of 1938, Shlomo ben Yosef, a member of the Irgun was executed by the British authorities in Acre prison. The night before the execution Jabotinsky raced through the streets of London in a futile last attempt to save the life of his follower. Before going to the scaffold Ben Yosef said to his friends: “Tell Jabotinsky that I will die with his name on my lips.” On receiving this last message of the martyr. Jabotinsky wrote humbly to Ben Yosef’s mother, a poor Jewess of Lutsk: “Ich bin dos nisht wert.” To his followers however, Jabotinsky declared: “The sacrifice of Ben Yosef has brought about a change in the Jewish national movement. The gallows of Acre prison will become an altar of worship by Jewish youth.”
The execution of Ben Yosef presented indeed a turning point in the history of the Betar, the youth movement Jabotinsky had created to serve as an avant-garde in the battle for the Jewish state.
In 1937 the Irgun Zvat Leumi, whose beginnings go back to the early 1930’s, had been re-constituted. Its membership consisted in the great majority of members of Betar and its commanders recognized Jabotinsky as their leader. The task of the Irgun was to be not only a defense-body against Arab attacks, but an instrument for the attainment of Jewish statehood.
Members of the Irgun headed the Af-Al-Pi, the Revisionist organization for the promotion of the “illegal” Jewish immigration into Palestine. Since the Anschluss of Austria to Germany in 1938 the Af-Al-Pi had engaged in large scale operations. Thousands of Jews were brought in chartered ships to the shores of Palestine where they were secretly disembarked by members of the Irgun.
The Irgun also prepared for the eventual Jewish conquest of Palestine by arms. For this purpose it had established branches and training centers throughout Eastern Europe. By a secret agreement with the Polish government, Irgun leaders were trained by the Polish army, and the Irgun in Palestine received sizeable quantities of arms from the Polish authorities.
In the spring of 1939, Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany. Hundreds of thousands of Jews from Central and Eastern Europe were frantically begging for admission to countries of refuge. The gates of Palestine remained closed. The British government issued the White Paper, which represented a repudiation of the Balfour Declaration. British Warships cruised the Mediterranean to intercept “illegal” Jewish immigrants.
Undauntedly, Jabotinsky continued his campaign to build up diplomatic pressure by Eastern European states to force the British Government to open the gates of Palestine.
Jewish distress in Europe was mounting. The world was apathetic. Jewish leaders were helpless. The Irgun in Palestine had started to engage in sabotage activities against the British- it was, however, not yet ready for big decisive actions.
Was there no way of bringing to the attention of the world the depths of Jewish despair? Was there no way of alarming the Jewish people to mobilize all its forces for an all-out effort to save its oppressed and persecuted masses?
In the beginning of August 1939, Jabotinsky sends a message to the commanders of the Irgun in Palestine:
He, who was banished from Palestine, intends to arrive in the country on a certain day in the month of October on a boat with illegal immigrants. Would the Irgun be able to stage on his arrival an armed revolt and to hold at least for twenty four hours all major government buildings? During that period a Jewish National Government would be proclaimed. The revolt would undoubtedly be suppressed- but it would have served to focus the world’s attention on the despair of the Jewish people and its justified demands. These demands will be pressed and represented by the Jewish National Government, which would continue to function after the suppression of the revolt as a government- in- exile. A few weeks after Jabotinsky had sent this message, World War II broke out.
War had broken out. Jabotinsky spoke in London. After he had said the “Hesped” for his departed friend Y. Yacoby, he continued to talk on the situation of the Jewish people and its tasks and aims in the war.
This time the theme of his address was not “In the Twelfth Hour”- for the twelfth hour had already struck. Eastern European Jewry had been trapped between Berlin and Moscow.
Great was the Jewish plight. Great was Jewish suffering. Yet the western world not only remained indifferent, but willfully and consciously chose to conceal the Jewish tragedy.
Declared Jabotinsky: “I collect daily reports of pogroms and assaults on Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland which are never published in the press of the world. There is a conspiracy of silence with regard to Jewish suffering.”
I do not know whether it was then that Jabotinsky had used for the first time this expression, but however he was the first to warn of that conspiracy of silence which was to cost us so much in the later years of the war.
What is the task of Jewry in this hour? The establishment of a Jewish national government and of a Jewish army. They will represent and press the Jewish demands!
Will the nations accord recognition to a Jewish government and army? This depends in the main on us and not on them. If the Jewish people will stand up for its demands, if it will press for them unyieldingly, then and there Jabotinsky raised his voice and every word of his, echoed through the stillness of the hall like the sound of the shot of a machine gun:
The nations of the world will make room for us. They will make room for us on all fronts. They will make room for us among their governments and armies!
If Jewry will be represented among the governments of the world, if the Jewish flag will fly on the battle fields then the conspiracy of silence would be broken, Jewish suffering would have to be taken notice of. Jewish demands would have to be recognized.
And then- and there Jabotinsky returned to the “Hesped” for his friend with which he had started his address-
As sure as I live and Yacoby is dead, there will be a Jewish state! There will be a Jewish state from Dan to Beer Sheva, to both sides of the Jordan!
A short time later he left for the United States to arouse the millions of Jews here to action on behalf of their suffering people. He found American Jewry unprepared, unaware of the depth of the tragedy of their brethren in Europe, oblivious to the great tasks and responsibilities the war had placed upon their shoulders. European Jewry is suffering. It is tied and gagged. Its stifled outcries are ignored by the world. American- Jewry must come to its aid, voice its pain and press its demands.
Jabotinsky called a meeting of rabbis in New York. He pleaded with them to arouse the people to the needs of the hour. Spellbound the large audience listened to the greatest Jewish orator of our generation. It was to be one of his last speeches, one of his last pleas to his people to stand up for its rights.
“Ansky wrote once: There is one people in the world more holy than any other people- this is the Jewish people. One tribe of this people is more holy than the others- the tribe of Levi. One family among the Levites is more holy than the others- the Kohanim. And there is one priest more holy than all the others- the high priest.
“There is one country in the world more holy than all other countries- Eretz Yisrael. The city in this country is more holy than the others- Jerusalem. One place in Jerusalem is more holy than the others- the Beth Hamikdash. And in the Beth Hamikdash there is the holiest spot on earth- the Holy of Holies.
“There are days in the year more holy than the others- Shabbath. And there is one day more holy than Shabbath- Yom Kippur.
“And on the holiest day of the year, on Yom Kippur, the holiest man of the world, the High Priest enters the holiest place in the world, the Holy of Holies and there he speaks out the Shem Hameforash, the Ineffable Name.
“And if he leaves safely the Holy of Holies then it is a sign unto the people that they will enjoy peace and prosperity throughout the year.
“And here Jabotinsky’s voice rose higher and higher, carrying with it the souls and hearts of the listeners.
“I do not know whether we are High Priest or whether our sons will be High Priests. We are living, however, in the most sacred hour in our history, when millions of Jews are suffering and enslaved. Let us speak out, let us speak out our demands to the world- perhaps we will be saved!”
They applauded as they had always applauded him. They stood in tears because Jabotinsky’s words had pierced their hearts and made them realize the depths of the tragedy of their people. The next day however, Jewish leaders and Klal Tuers who had been afraid of Jabotinsky’s hold on the masses, spread word: Do not believe this false Messiah, do not follow his lead!
Several weeks later Jabotinsky died in a Betar camp not far from New York.
Naturally not all of Jabotinsky’s plans and sections were public knowledge. His activities, for example, on behalf of the Af-Al-Pi and for the Irgun Zvat Leumi were only known to the top leaders of these organizations.
There were plans of his, however, of which even most of his intimate collaborators were not aware.
Only last year, Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, a known British military man who after the first World War was a political officer in Syria and Palestine, revealed in his memoirs that in the beginning of World War II when he, Meinertzhagen, was serving in the British War Office, Jabotinsky proposed to the British General staff to assassinate Hitler. Col. Meinertzhagen revealed that at the time Jabotinsky’s followers had carried out on behalf of the British sabotage activities against the Germans in Europe. (Later in the war, members of the Irgun in Palestine were employed by the British Military intelligence in the Middle East, and David Raziel, commander in chief of the Irgun was killed in military action against the pro-German Rashid- Ali regime in Iraq). Jabotinsky had worked out in all its details a plan to assassinate Hitler and offered the British authorities that his followers carry it out. The British General Staff repudiated the plan regarding it as an “un-orthodox” method of warfare.
There was one secret, however, which Jabotinsky did not share even with those who were very near to him- the fact that for years he was suffering from an ailment of the heart. When this became known after his death, his personal physician revealed that Jabotinsky had sworn him to secrecy, not to tell anyone of his heart condition. Jabotinsky was afraid that his followers, if aware of his delicate state of health, would not permit him to continue his feverish activities on behalf of his people. He regarded, however, his personal welfare and life of minor importance, in view of the impending catastrophe of European Jewry which he foresaw, of which he warned and which he tried to avert.
Thus his sudden death came as a shock even to his family and entourage.
It would be impossible to describe the mourning which enveloped world Jewry at the news of his death. To do this it would be necessary to quote at length reports and articles from Jewish newspapers of all denominations and ideologies from all over the world. I would like, however, to cite a few lines from an article written by Professor Joseph Klausner during the Shiva after Jabotinsky. Among other, the article describes a memorial meeting held for Jabotinsky in Jerusalem soon after the news of his death had arrived.
Professor Klausner writes:
“I am sixty-six years old. I have participated in hundreds of mass meetings and I myself have spoken in front of thousands of people- but such a multitude of people as were assembled the day before yesterday in the courtyard of Rechavia High School I have never seen before. Thousands, ten thousand, nay- tens of thousands attended. This was in Jerusalem on an ordinary weekday; in Jerusalem- whose Jewish population is distributed over various quarters which are remote from each other. This was the most colorful crowd I have ever seen. Grey-haired elders and fair-haired children, bearded men with ear locks clad in “shubitzes” and clean-shaven people in modern dress, Ashkenazim and Sephardim, German Jews and Jews from Poland, natives of Russia and people of Hungarian origin, Yemenites, Jews from Kurdistan and Persia, Betarim and members of other youth movements. Old and young women, women wearing shaitels and others dressed according to the latest fashion- all of them stood patiently in the heat, their faces turned to the speaker and their eyes flowing with tears. G-d Almighty- where from springs such great power to unite so many hearts in mourning over one single man.”
Jabotinsky’s work and ideas did not die with him. The holocaust which he foresaw and tried to forestall overtook European Jewry. Yet towards the end of the war when the defeat of the Germans was already certain, and it was equally clear that the Allies who until then had done nothing to save European Jews from the German murderers, were continuing with their policy of barring the way of escape to the massacred masses, and the gates of Palestine, the Jewish homeland remained closed. Jabotinsky’s disciples in Palestine rose in rebellion against the British. In the beginning of 1944, the Irgun Zvai Leumi who since the beginning of the world war had observed a truce with the British administration and collaborated with it against the common enemy- demanded the handing over of Palestine to a Jewish authority and declared war against the British to achieve this aim.
At the time the Irgun was headed by Menachem Begin, formerly head of the Betar of Poland, who had reached Palestine as a soldier with the Polish army after having spent prolonged periods as a prisoner in Russian prisons and hard-labor camps.
It was Begin who gave the order to revolt, and to use his own words, “When I gave the order it was as if I heard the voice of Jabotinsky commanding me to give it.”
* * *
In the beginning of 1944 the Irgun Zvai Leumi posted throughout Palestine its declaration of war against the British administration and called to the Jews to support its right.
It stated the reasons and objectives of the revolt and chartered the way of uprising.
Its concluding paragraphs read as follows:
“This war will demand many and heavy sacrifices, but we enter on it in the consciousness that we are being faithful to the children of our people who have been and are being slaughtered. It is for their sake that we fight, to their dying testimony that we remain joyful.
We shall fight; every Jew in the homeland will fight. The G-d of Israel, the Lord of Hosts will aid us. There will be no retreat. Freedom- or death.
The fighting youth will not flinch from tribulation and sacrifice. They will not surrender until they have renewed our days of old, until they have ensured for our people, a homeland, freedom, honor, bread and justice. And if you will give them your aid you will see in our days the Return to Zion and the restoration of Israel.”
If at the time there were people who refused to take this declaration seriously, the events of the following years more than convinced them.
The members of the Irgun kept their word. They did not flinch from tribulation and sacrifice. They were few against many. Small, but well disciplined and organized groups against whole regiments of the British army, British police, a hostile Arab population and their own brothers who denounced and even collaborated with the British to fight them. They were almost unarmed- their only arms being homemade weapons and those captured from British arsenals and army camps. But strong and deep were their conviction and confidence in the justice of their cause and in its ultimate victory.
When captured, they faced defiantly their judges, heavy prison terms did not break their spirit and with songs on their lips and deep faith in their hearts that their sacrifice had not been in vain, they went to the scaffold.
With the progress of time, their actions became bolder. The heroism and ingenuity of their feats have no parallel in history of revolutions and rebellions. They struck at almost every government building, police station and army camp in Palestine; air fields with planes went up in flames. British banks were raided; traffic on railroads and highways paralyzed for days, the chief seat of the administration dynamited; Acre prison stormed- until British rule crumbled away.
After World War II Zionist leaders accepted, though not acknowledged, Jabotinsky’s strategy for the realization of the aims of Zionism.
In the thirties, Jabotinsky had advocated and organized “illegal” immigration into Palestine- Zionist leaders opposed it. After World War II, those same leaders organized such immigration.
Jabotinsky had advocated the building up of international political and diplomatic pressure to achieve the Jewish state- he was apposed and ridiculed. After the war, however, that selfsame method was employed by those who had apposed him.
Jabotinsky had demanded the training and arming of Jewish youth- and he was labeled a “militarist” and “fascist”. Yet only a few years after his death those who had ridiculed him, conscripted Jewish youth for battle and traveled over continents in search for arms for the Jewish people.
Jabotinsky had formulated the aim of Zionism as the establishment of the Jewish state and the liquidation of the Diaspora- and there were those who opposed this because they did not believe in the possibility of the attainment of a Jewish state. Yet only a few years after his death the Jewish State was established and his opponents served and still serve as ministers in its cabinet.
Jabotinsky’s disciples, with their suffering and fight, their blood and tears, had blazed the trail to the Jewish state. They had fulfilled the will of their master.
His great dream for his people has become true- but has his personal last wish?
“Bury me wherever I die- and bring my bones to Eretz Yisrael by order of the Jewish government when it will be established,” he had written in his will.
Since the establishment of the Jewish state, many a Jewish body and organization, of those who followed Jabotinsky and of those who apposed him, have requested the government of Israel to transfer the remains of Jabotinsky to that country for which he had fought. The government of Ben Gurion had steadfastly refused this request.
Following such a refusal, Begin wrote an article about Jabotinsky, who while alive, had been banished from Eretz Yisrael by the British and after his death- by Jews. The article was entitled: Bagaluth Etzel Yehudim- in Galus bei Yidn.
Jabotinsky is still in Galus bei Yidn- but the day will come, and it may not be far, when a new government will arise in Israel, a government we not only respect but also adore, a government which will embody all that is great and lofty in our past and tradition, and will represent our hope, our pride and our greatness. And this government will bring home the remains of the great dreamer and fighter of our generation.
Years ago a friend of mine, Dov Warshavsky, formerly a leader of religious Revisionists in Poland, wrote: “We had stolen the love from our parents and given it to Jabotinsky.”
On the twenty-ninth of Tammuz this year, the twentieth Yahrzeit of Jabotinsky, I wrote these lines as one “who had stolen his love from his parents and given it to him”.
Yithgadel Veyithkadesh…..
Great, greater, greatest.
By Tovia Preschel
Jewish Press
July 22-August 19, 1960