THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 54 October 17, 1980 Vladimir Jabotinsky ---- Unheeded Zionist Prophet (Continued from Page 72) , As 1938 progressed, we of the Irgun insisted that seri- ous planning and prepara- tion must commence for an all-out battle against the Mandatory power, for tear- ing down all barriers to im- migration, for a campaign among the Diaspora youth to enlist and train them for the coming battle of libera- tion. We considered the chap- ter of political Zionism, based on cooperation with Britain, as ended. We asked Jabotinsky to help by put- ting at our disposal the dip- lomatic links the New Zionist Organization estab- lished in Eastern and Cen- tral Europe. Together, the NZO, the Irgun and Betar expanded the "free immi- gration" to Palestine. The year, 1938 was the critical year in Jabotins- ky's political thinking. He was torn between his ingrained humanism which inclined him to put his faith in Britain, as op- posed to the realities. Jabotinsky was a 19th Century liberal, not a revo- lutionary. His affection and admiration for the demo- cratic, Judeophile British tradition did not let go of him, except as conditions became critical and omin- ous in Europe in late 1938. As late as February 1938, at the New Zionist Organ- ization convocation in Vie- nna, the key pragmatic platform was a 10-year plan to transfer one million Jews to Palestine. We Irgun young men who . attended paid scant atten- tion to it..In the following months the Irgun had moved ahead with its own momentum or evolving into a revolutionary. army. It continued to build its bases in Palestine and Eastern Europe, accumulating weapons, creating a cadre of trained officers and rank and file. Experience was gained by moving thousands of "illegal" im- migrants into Palestine. And during all these months in 1938, the ac- tivists of the Irgun con- tinued their pressure on Jabotinsky to identify with the next phase of Political - Humanitarian - Zionism, the revolution- ary phase. True to his tradition, Jabotinsky not only talked to, but also listened to the youth and the masses in the "danger zone" and in Pales- tine. He warned again and again of the monstrous forces let loose on the conti- nent. He was shocked by the callousness of the British Colonials to the daily growth in the Nazi attacks. Following the occupation of Austria in March 1938, Jabotinsky was further de- eply affected by the heroism of the Hebrew youth in Palestine. Ben-Yosef went to the gallows in July 1938, dig- nified, with Jabotinsky's name on his lips, the first Hebrew fighter to be exe- cuted by the British in the unfolding fight for indepen- dence. Events in Europe in 1938 kept their unswerv- SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO The Jewish News I To: The Jewish News I 17515 W. 9 Mile Rd., Suite 865 I Southfield, Mich. 48075 1 Please send a year's gift subscription to: 1 1 NAME 1 ADDRESS 1 I CITY 1 FOR 1 STATE state occasion 1 FROM 1 ❑ $15 enclosed ZIP 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 • 1MM. ing advance. The Jews of British blockage on a larger existent for the duration. Jabotinsky presented Austria were being expel- scale, but the traditional led, imprisoned and Zionist leadership, includ- his case to the British, murdered. The Evian ing David Ben-Gurion, and later at lower levels, Conference on Refugees overruled it. As late as the to the American govern- came and went, with the Zionist Congress in Zurich ment. His campaign was word Jew rarely pro- (August 1939) on the eve of. ignored on both sides of nounced. The infamous the war, Rabbi Hillel Silver the ocean. It was belittled "Crystal Night" murder- stood up before his col- and scoffed at by the es- ously engulfed German leagues and warned against tablishment Jews, al- any "hasty, immature ven- though he was listened to controlled lands. Jabotinsky was under tures in Palestine . . ." This by the masses in unrelenting pressure from was his contribution to a Whitechapel and the East events, from the nucleus of debate on running the Side of New York. In April 1940, he came to activists in Palestine, from British blockade which an ever-growing number of . tightened its noose around the United States to mobilize public opinion — militants among his the Jews of Europe. By August 1939, Jewish and non-Jewish — younger followers in the Jabotinsky was finalizing on behalf of a Jewish army, Diaspora. By the end of 1938, the plans for an armed land- and to secure help to save Jabotinsky at last gave in. ing in Palestine, the occupa- Jews fleeing from the Ger- He placed himself at the tion of the British High man danger. He failed in head of the Hebrew Revolu- Commissioner's HQ in _both efforts. Obstinately the British, tion. From now on he Jerusalem, and the rising of thought, planned and acted the white and blue flag over the United States concur- as the supreme commander the Tower of David. And ring, rejected an appeal to then he hoped to appeal form a national Jewish of the Irgun. He was familiar with from there to the League of military fighting force be- Garibaldi's March of the Nations and the British cause it meant a seat at the Thousand which led toward people. After 2,000 years, Allies Council for Jews. the unification of Italy; he the Jews with arms in their Once a Jewish national was aware of the events and hands will speak to the con- identity was recognized consequences of the tragic science of the world. through an army, it meant On the night of Aug. 31, representation in the post- 1916 Irish Easter revolt. The planned armed the Irgun High Command war world, diplomatically , landings in Palestine and met in Tel Aviv to study and territorially. These failures, of which the declaration of the and respond to Jabotins- Hebrew revolt might not ky's minute and detailed Jabotinsky forwarned in his result in the instant crea- plan. They were arrested. book, "The War and the This was a serious blow to Jew," completed in April tion of the Hebrew repub- lic, but it might break the the project. But it need not 1940, tragically capped the deadlock between the have been fatal. What was career of a man who towered British colonial rule and fatal to it — and to six mil- head and shoulder above the critical need of the lion Jews — was that within the Jewish Zionist leader- Jewish masses for a life- six hours the Germans ship during the years be- crossed the Polish border. tween the two wars. saving haven. Jabotinsky did not abdi- Jabotinsky did not It is usually barren to cate from political action. foresee another World War. compare historic per- At the same time that he He predicted the destruc- sonages. Nevertheless, discussed with his son Eri tion of Europe's Jewry, but there is a lot in common and this writer our chances not as a side effect of an in- in the historical-political to expand our free immigra- - ternational conflagration. careers of Winston Chur- tion and shipping activities He was wrong, but not to the chill and Zeev (December 1938), he re- extent of being immobilized Jabotinsky. In the de- cades between the two quested his close col- in thought or action. laborator Robert Briscoe, On Sept. 1, 1939, he is- wars, both were consid- the Jewish member of the sued a call to Jews ered Cassandras, not to Irish Parliament, to embark everywhere to join France be taken too seriously. on a mission to the United and Britain in their fight Both centered on preach- States, to approach "for those very foundations ing for strength and pre- President Roosevelt with of society whose Magna paredness, both warned of the unique viciousness the plan to transfer a mil- Carta is our Bible." Jabotinsky asked that of Nazism, both lived to lion Jews within two years Jews who were not see their dire warnings to Palestine. The groundwork for such mobilized in the Allied turn into dark reality. an approach was laid in armies bq given the Then the similarity meetings with the Ameri- chance and right to fight ended. Churchill was called by can ambassadors in War- in a Jewish army. This his people at the moment of was not granted. saw and London. The last months of his life crisis to the helm of the gov- Briscoe's mission failed.' were dedicated to mobiliz- ernment and he led them to He never managed to reach the White House, although ing Jewish activism and victory. Except for Eastern he was received by (retired) overcome the Allies' policy of shutting out the threat to Europe and in his last years, Justice Louis D. Brandeis, Jewish survival from the Jabotinsky was ignored by and though he had the as- consciousness of the Allied his people to the end. As the sistance of James Farley, people, and excluding a smell of death rose from the the top man of the Demo- Jewish participation in the ghettos of Poland, cratic Party's hierarchy. Jabotinsky's heart gave out. as Jews. As the months passed, war The Allied policy was to He died, almost a stranger Jabotinsky warned once the Jews invisible for to the American Jewish again (June 1939) that make the duration: First to community, separated from "we cannot go back to a counter German prop- his wife (who stayed in normal agenda ... the al- aganda that Gentile-Allied "blitzed" London), from his ternative (to action) is de- blood was being spilt in a son in a British jail in Pales- struction! ... my honora- ble friends — memorize Jewish war; second, to meet tine. His last, lonely, sick this word: D-e-s-t-r-u-c- British warnings that t-i-o-n. The wolf is at the Jewish armed units, and months were spent in a tiny recognition of a Jewish na- furnished room on Manhat- door ..." The world ignored him. tional entity meant a claim tan's West Side. A leader of a nation is the The Jewish-Zionist leader- on Palestine. This, the British insisted one who analytically and ship, by now, seeing at least the catastrophe approach, would alienate the powerful logically perceives and de- begged the British to help. Arabs of the Near East. As fines its goals for safe survi- Jabotinsky put it in early val and existence; who They were ignored. Some in Palestine, in the 1940, the consensus was communicates them to the ranks of the Socialists, were then (and later when the people; inspires people to ready to turn toward physi- United States joined the Al- place these goals above all cal resistance, breaking the lies) to make the Jews, non- other selfish desires; who instills in them faith that their will would realize these goals. To do that, Jabotinsky spoke a language of na- tional realism and logic. He challenged the Jews to regain their ability to think as a nation, to cleanse their minds of neurosis and self- deprecation, to face their fate and destiny ration- ally. He taught the inevitabil- ity of a Jewish exodus from East-Central Europe. That that exodus is possi- ble only to a Jewish state. That there is no suitable site for the Jewish state but one — the ancient home! That the moral right to that state and land is unas- sailable. That the Arabs in Palestine and elsewhere will oppose it to the end. That armed strength is not an abstract subject. That interests and re- spect dictate relations be- tween nations. All this was strange, sus- pect, and often anathema to the Jews. Jews had lost the ability to think about their fate and destiny effectively. Most Jews, even those willing to face the challeng- ing issues — not a majority in the 1930s — did not fully understand Jabotinsky's message. The inevitable catastrophe followed. Fate deprived the Jewish people and the renascent Hebrew nation at their moment of truth, of the powerful, uninhib- ited voice of a charisma- tic, unique leader. Given a few more years of life he, the powerful orator, outstanding novelist, lin- guist and poet, could have shaken and pro- dded the conscience of the West sufficiently to save millions. Had he lived one more de- cade, he could have guided the struggle for Jewish sur- vival and Hebrew indepen- dence. Fate did not will it. His- tory followed its abysmal course. The Jewish people paid dearly for ignoring a unique son and teacher. To- day, Israel still pays — and will continue to pay dearly — for not having taken his teachings to its heart. * * * Herut Will Mark Anniversary The Jabotinsky Society P I. Herut Zionists of Ameri will observe the 100th an- niversary of the birth of Vladimir Jabotinsky 8 p.m. WcdneSday in the youth lounge of Cong. Beth Achim. According to provisional president Simon Cieck Is- raeli films will be shown and Rabbi Milton Arm will evaluate the life of Jabotinsky. The public is invited. The Jabotinsky Society is the name of the re- organized United Zionists Revisionists — Herut organization of D^',roit.