Joseph Trumpeldor

ALL TOO 50011 .Lif WAS TO SET THE HEROIC EXAMPLE! IN
1920, HE WAS LIVING THE LIFE OF A PIONEER HALUTZ IN
TEL HAI WHEN A HUGE ARAB FORCE TREACHEROUSLY
ATTACKED THE LITTLE GALILEE SETTLEMENT...

—Modern Israel's First Soldier

By NORMAN NODEL
Text By JOSEPH BENAMY

HIS IMMORTAL WORDSIT IS GOOD TO DIE FOR
OUR COUNTRY' NAVE TAKEN THEIR RIGHTnJt
PLACE IN JEWISH LEGEND AND WILL CONTINUE TO
INSPIRE GENERATIONS OF JEWS DETERMINED TO

INSPIRED BY TRUMPLEDOR,TKE
GALLANT DEFENDERS FOUGHT
BACK MAGNIFICENTLY. OUT-
NUMBERED BY MORE THAN 100
TO I , THEY REPELLED ATTACK
AFTER ATTACK...,

CREATE A FRU HOMELAND IN PALESTINE!

ONE BY ONE THE HEROES FELL
TRUMPLEDOR SWORE WITH THE
SURVIVORS NEVER TO SURRENDER.
MORTALLY WOUNDED, HE SHOUTED:

'WE SMALL NOT 8006E7_

AND THEY DIDN'T/

JOSEPH TRUMPLEDOR BECAME
AN ARDENT ZIONIST AND
WENT TO PALESTINE AS A
• HALutz!..

(JOSEPH TRUMPLEDOR.,
THE SYMBOL OF MODERN
JEWISH HEROISM,WAS BORN '
IN RUSSIA IN 1882.111S WAS
A COMPLETELY RUSSUJIL2ED
FAMILY AND WHEN NE VOLUN-
TEERED COR THE RUSSO-JAP
WAR, JOSEPH WAS A TOTAL
STRANGER TO
JEWISH LIFE
AND JEWISH
INTERESTS..<
TAA

•••■••■

O

THE ANTI-JEWISH PREJUDICES HE FOUND
IN THE ARMY AND ESPECIALLY,HIS HORROR

OF THE KISHENEFF POGROM,AROUSED HIS
JEWISH CONSCIOUSNESS AND PRIDE...

Remarkable Story of Trumpeldor, Tel Hai
Told in Freulich's Biography of the Hero

A deeply moving story of the
great hero of the early history of
Zionist endeavors in Palestine and
the heroism of one of Israel's out-
standing pioneers is told in "The
Hill of Life—The Story of Joseph
Trumpeldor," by Roman Freulich,
in collaboration with Joan Abram-
son. It has just been published by
Thomas Yoseloff.
Appropriately, the biography of
Trumpeldor commences with his
experiences as a soldier in the
army of the Russian Czar during
the Russo-Japanese war in which
he lost an arm and had displayed
much bravery.
Just as appropriate is the ac-
count given of the experiences of
Joseph's father, Zev, who served
against his will in the Russian
army for 25 years during the per-
iod when children were captured
for such services. Zev was a phar-
macist. He was embittered but he
dug to his Jewishness.
Joseph, who earned his degree in
law, soon dedicated himself to Zi-
onism and went to live in Pales-
lien, there to encounter the diffi-
culties that faced the pioneers, the
Arab attackers on Jewish settle-
ments. His defense of Tel Hai—
where a monument now honors his
memory—his death in the battle
for defense and for his people's
national rejuvenation, is one of the
epic stories in Zionism.
* * *
The story of his early life, as a
yrisoner of the Japanese at Port
Arthur, his organizational ability

when he mobilized Jewish soldiers
into a Jewish Prisoners' Organiza-
tion and Mutual Aid Society.
Joseph's father tried to discour-
age his son from his desire to go
to Palestine, to join in Jewish re-
demption efforts, to become a
farmer. Joseph had risen to the
ranks of a commissioned officer in
the Russian army—the first time
a Jew had attained such "glory."
In spite of his rating as a hero, he
found it difficult as a Jew to enter
the St. Petesburg University, but
his superior officer, General Petru-
sha yielded and his Jewishness was
overlooked. In the process, how-
ever, there was an unsuccessful ef-
fort to get him to convert to Chris-
tianity. But Joseph Trumpeldor
had one ambition—to complete his
studies and to leave for Eretz Is-
rael.
■ *
He began his Zionist organiza-
tional work in the university, en-
couraged solicitations for the Jew-
ish National Fund, made lasting
friendships, debated the Zionist
idea with opponents, among them
the revolutionary Peter Rutenberg
who believed only in an emerging
revolutionary socialism as a solu-
tion to the sufferings of Jews and
oppressions of all Russians.
There was a love affair during
his student days—with Ruth Saphir,
daughter of one of the very wealthy
Jews in Russia, but Joseph broke
even that relationship out of his de-
termination to abandon the law
profession and to become a farmer
in Eretz Israel.

Ex-Luftwaffe Pilot Becomes a Jew

(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)

TEL AVIV — A former pilot in
the Nazi Luftwaffe who had been
"searching for identity" since the
end of World War II converted to
Judaism with the blessings of a
Haifa rabbinical court Tuesday
changed his name from Oscar Eid:
er to Abraham Ben Abraham. He
plans to marry an Israeli girl who
had similar "identity" problems.
Eider-Ben Abraham settled in

48 Friday, January 10, 1969

—

Israel six years ago and became
a farmer after wanderings that
took him to Indonesia, India and
some Arab countries. He requested
conversion to Judaism at the time
and was advised to apply again
in three years. His application was
approved by the rabbinical court
Tuesday. His intended bride is a
divorcee who went to India to find
"new beliefs" but came back to
Judaism.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Then began the Zionist experi-
ence—in Migdal, in Dagania, en-
countering all the difficulties under
Turkish rule. Then came World
War I, he met Vladimir Jabotin-
sky, both labored together for the
eventual formation of the Jewish
Legion. He served in the Zion Mule
Corps and became closely allied
with the eminent Zionist friend,
Colonel John Henry Patterson.
* * *
Freulich, who had written a his-
tory of the Jewish Legion, goes into
detail about the Patterson, Trum-
peldor, Jabotinsky relationships
and this portion of the story is part
of a valuable history of early Zion-
ist developments in Eretz Israel. It
is a story of -struggle under the
British, of the eventual emergence
of the Jewish Legion, of Jabotin-
sky's leadership and influence.
While Trumpeldor, one armed but
still a hero and a man of great
determination, was fighting witb
the Mule Corps at Galipoli, Jabotin-
sky was organizing the Legion. The
role of Peter (Pinhas) Rutenberg
who later developed the electrical
power plant in Palestine, emerges
as part of this chapter in Zionist
history. Rutenberg, who had be-
lieved in Father Gapon, later to
learn of the cleric's treason, had
abandoned his anti-Zionism and
joined with ,Trumpeldor in affirm-
ing that the only place for a Jew
who suffered persecution in Russia
was in Bretz Israel. - -
The description of the battle of
Tel Hai, during which Trumpeldor
lost his life, is graphically de-
scribed. It was a time when "a
few Jewish settlers stood between
the Arabs and full control of Gali-
lee." The Jewish settlers, suffer-
ing the tragic losses, temporarily
abandoned their colony, went to
Kfar Gilado, with Trumpeldor on a
stretcher, soon nearing his end.
Jabotinsky, when he was impris-
oned by the British some time
later, wrote a poem in tribute to
Trumpeldor and it is quoted in this
volume of tribute to a great hero.
In "The Hill of Life" are recorded
the major acts of bravery by a
man whose name lives indelibly
in Israel's history.

AFTER THE WAR,TRUMPLEDOR RE-
MINDED THE JEWS THAT THE REALIZ-
ATION OF A NATIONAL IDEAL IS NOT
SIMPLE. THEY MUST FIGHT FOR IT!
TO LIVE Del4AARETZt"-TNEY MUST
8E READY TO SACRINCE fOR ITll

HE DISTINGUISHED HIMSELF
IN WORLD WAR TOGETHER
WITH JABOTINSKY HE ORGAN -
IZED THE FIRST JEWISH LEGION
BATTALION AND FAILED. IN A
DARING POST-WAR PLAN TO
LEAD AN ARMY OF SEVERAL
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS Of
MEN INTO .PALESTINE... -

Feinberg Named Chairman of Newly
Created Hebrew U. Library, Council

Avraham Harman, president of
the Hebrew University in Jerusa-
lem, and in New York, Samuel
Rothberg, chairman of the board
of the American Friends of the
Hebrew University and chairman
of the Hebrew University board of
governors, issued a simultaneous

CHARLES E. FEINBERG

communique announcing the crea-
tion of a Library Advisory Council
of the American Friends, under
the chairmanship of Charles E.

Feinberg of Detroit.
The council will be comprised. of
experts inthe, literary_ field, both
professionals and laymen, states-
men, scholars,' clergy and person-
alities ,;vhd have made significant
contribOtions in educational and
cultural work.
Feinberg, in the. O'ffice of the
council_located at 11 E. 69th St..
New York, said that the newly
created council will guide and aid
the American Friends in their
work for the Jewish National and
University Library and the Special
Textbook Project.
The English-born Feinberg, in
the. United States since 1923, an
honorary member of Phi Beta
Kappa and member of the Grolier
Club; has made a name for himself
as a Walt Whitman expert and col-
lector. He believes that a collector
should not consider his collection
as personal property, but as a re-
sponsible public institution, having
the obligation of sharing .with the
world its published and unpublish-
ed material.

Hardy Heart Going Strong Year Later

Philip and Eileen Blaiberg smile happily as they prepare to de-
part for dinner in Cape Town, South Africa, to celebrate the first
anniversary of his heart transplant.- He is the world's longest surviv-
ing heart transplant recipient.