Palestine - or Judah?

Judah.

As reported by a "Correspondent With the British Forces In Palestine":

Within the country, the English advance is taken almost as a matter of course . The Jewish people have been counting on it for a year, and they show no exuberant enthusiasm now that their expectation has been fulfilled. They are more excited abou the formation of the Jewish regiment, of which tidings have reached them in a somewhat distorted form. They regarded it is a striking manifestation of the national spirit which is their peculiar pride, and they inquire anxiously when it will arrive in the country* to help drive the Turks from Galilee.  

Many imagined it was to come out under "General Jabotinsky, " the "general" being a prominent Russo-Jewish journalist who has had much to do with the promotion of the idea, but who holds in fact a far less exalted position in the unit. Probably many of the young men would be eager to join the ranks when the regiment arrives in the land; until then, the settlers agree that the redemption came just in time to save them and their colonies from ruin. 

*  The first units arrived in June 1918.

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The Jewish Legion Memorial at Shiloh Junction

Yesterday I attended the ceremony during which the Memorial for the Jewish Legion soldiers who fought nearby (see below) was unveiled.

The inscription:

The sculpture:

Me:

Now, what were the soldiers of the Jewish Legion doing in the vicinity?

From two books.

The Story of the Jewish Legion by Ze'ev Jabotinsky:

From Colonel JH Patterson's With the Judeans in the Palestine Campaign:

They marched and bivouacked and fought in Binyamin.

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To: Trumpeldor; From: Jabotinsky

Recently, letters written by Ze'ev Jabotinsky to Yosef Trumpeldor in 1916, were released by the Jabotinsky Institute.

They dealt with issues concerning the raising of a Jewish armed force to fight alongside the Allies in World War I.

First, there was the Zion Mule Corps, which Jabotinsky felt was not worthy of the ideal - a battle-front Jewish military unit - and then the Jewish Legion, three battalions that reached the Palestine front and fought the Ottomans and Germans and pursuing them across the Jordan River to E-Salt.

Here are two letters from the Walla report:

The one above indicates the uphill struggle but with the publication of JH Patterson's With the Zionists in Gallipoli there is interest in the project

In this one he asks that Trumpeldor come to London for "your appearance here could be the spark in a pile of dry hay":

And a July 1917 letter from Trumpeldor to Jabotinsky from the A7 site in which he updates on his unsuccessful efforts to raise a unit of Russian Jews to join the Legion (and in Russian at Vesty):

And here is the Maariv report on a letter from Trumpeldor to Jabotinsky:

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A Centenary Approaching

The Centenary of the Founding of the Jewish Legion is approaching.

Announced in August 1917, its recruits marched through the streets of London on February 2, 1918.

Its commander was John H. Patterson:

Its initiator was Ze'ev Jabotinsky and looking at this photograph at the official reception in Whitechapel from the film clip:

and I am positive that there is Jabotinsky:

Betar, the Revisionist Zionist youth movement, was considered by Jabotinsky to be the fourth battalion of the Legion, the core of the Jewish Army of the future Jewish state to arise.

With the flag:

Here is Jabotinsky with Betarim in Krakow in 1934:

Is anyone preparing for the anniversary?

Perhaps in conjunction with the centenary of the Balfour Declaration?

P.S.

Saluting the blue-and-white flag:

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March 4, 1915

On that day, which corresponds to the Hebrew date in the following document, a group of Jews decided to establish a Jewish regiment that would participate alongside the British troops.  The document was signed in Alexandria among others, by Ze'ev Jabotinsky and Yosef Trumpeldor:

However, if you look closely, you can discern that most probably, Jabotinsky also signed on behalf of Trumpeldor whether cecause Trumpeldor's Hebrew was poor or whether because he was one-armed, he had difficulty signing:

History is also the little things.

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Isaac Rosenberg Just Missed Jabotinsky

In late 1917, Ze'ev Jabotinsky founded the Jewish Legion as the 38th-38th-40th Royal Fuseilliers.

Isaac Rosenberg, famed post, seems to just have missed out being one of Jabo's soldiers:-

March 28, 1918
[Postmarked April 2, 1918: Rosenberg's last letter; he was killed on April 1]

My Dear Marsh

I think I wrote you I was about to go up the line again after our little rest. We are now in the trenches again and though I feel very sleepy, I just have a chance to answer your letter so I will while I may. Its really my being lucky enough to bag an inch of candle that incites me to this pitch of punctual epistolary. I must measure my letter by the light. First, this is my address

22311 Pte I R.
6 Platoon B Coy 1st K.O.R.L.
B.E.F.


We are very busy just now and poetry is right out of our scheme. I wrote one or two things in hospital about Xmas time but I don't remember whether I sent them to you or not. I'll send one, anyhow. During our little interlude of rest from the line I managed to do a bit of sketching -somebody had colours- and they weren't so bad, I don't think I have forgotten my art after all. I've heard nothing further about the J.B. [Jewish Battalion] and of course feel annoyed -more because no reasons have been given- but when we leave the trenches, I'll enquire further. I don't remember reading Freedman. I wanted to write a battle song for the Judaens but can think of nothing strong and wonderful enough yet. Here's just a slight thing. I've seen no poetry for ages now so you musn't be too critical - My vocabulary small enough before is impoverished and bare.

Yours sincerely
I Rosenberg

The Name Patterson Ring a Bell?

Well, for us Jabotinsky followers, JH Patterson was the commander of the Jewish Legion (*) which fought in World War I in the effort by Jews to participate in the military liberation of our national homeland (a land no Arab specifically fought for).(**)



Well, he was also a lion hunter. A famous one, too.

Read on:-

Kenya wants Tsavo man-eaters back

Kenya is trying to recover the remains of two infamous lions which killed 140 railway workers in the 19th Century.

They are the legendary man-eaters of Tsavo who caused havoc among the Indian labourers who built the railway line between Mombasa and Lake Victoria.

The lions' skulls and hides are housed at a museum in the US city of Chicago.

But Kenya's National Museum says they represent an important part of Kenya's history and heritage - and it wants them back.

The two lions struck over a nine-month period in 1898, bringing construction of the line to a halt.

An Oscar-winning film was made about the Tsavo man-eaters in 1996.

They were eventually shot by a British engineer, Lieutenant Colonel John Patterson, who later sold the skulls and hides to the Chicago Field Museum.

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(*) On the urging of Russian Zionist Vladimir Zeʾev Jabotinsky, Jewish units were formed to serve in the British army during World War I. The "Zion Mule Corps" consisted of 650 Palestinian Jews; it served in Gallipoli and was disbanded in 1916. The Thirty-eighth Battalion Royal Fusiliers (800 men) was recruited in England mainly from Russian immigrants, and was sent to Egypt and then Palestine in February 1918. The Thirty-ninth Battalion Royal Fusiliers enlisted some 2,000 men in the United States under the leadership of David Ben-Gurion, Yizhak Ben-Zvi, and Pinhas Rutenberg. It arrived in Egypt in August 1918 and was sent to Palestine. The Fortieth Battalion Royal Fusiliers was recruited from Palestinian Jews in British-controlled southern Palestine in July 1918. Commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson, these units of the Jewish Legion participated in Edmund Allenby's campaigns in Palestine and Syria in 1918. At the end of the war, the Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth battalions were disbanded, but the 1,000 men of the Fortieth Battalion remained in active service as part of the British forces in Palestine until after the riots of May 1921.

(**) Although he was himself a Protestant, he became a major figure in Zionism as the commander of both the Zion Mule Corps and the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers (aka Jewish Legion of the British Army) in World War One, which would eventually serve as the foundation of the Israeli Defence Force decades later. He was promoted to the rank of full Colonel in 1917, and retired from the British Army in 1920 after thirty-five years of service. His last two books, With the Zionists at Gallipoli (1916) and With the Judeans in Palestine (1922) are based on his experiences during these times. After his military career, Patterson continued his support of Zionism as a strong advocate toward the establishment of a separate Jewish state in the Middle East, which became a reality with the statehood of Israel on May 14, 1948, less than a year after his death...Patterson was cremated, his ashes being returned to present day Israel – the exact location of his grave remains unknown to this day.