Jabotinsky is Not on That Wall

This is at the main entrance square to the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. The institution's founders:

From right to left is Judah Leib Magnes, Albert Einstein, Chaim Weizmann, Berthold Feivel, Martin Buber and Zvi Hermann Shapira.

Ze'ev Jabotinsky is not included.

He was a member of the Preparatory Commission established by the Zionist Congress in 1913 to move the project to fruition.  He was in charge of the work in Russia: canvassing, lecturing and raising funds.  He demanded not a research center but a real school, especially for the Jews suffering from the policy of numerus clausus and an education institute with a very practical-oriented course of studies.  

Oh, he objected to high salaries.

Rewriting history.

Excluding any one right-of-center.

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Jabotinsky Won But Lost His Place on the Wall

I was at the Hebrew University yesterday for a conclave on Hillel Cohen's book on 1929 but that will be dealt with in another post.

On the way in, I walked over to observe this new wall

It commemorates the founding fathers of the university:

The simple fact is that in the period prior to World War I, someone else prominent not included was involved, Ze'ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky:-

The horrors of the1903 pogrom against the Jews of Kishinev had the profound effect of spurring Jabotinsky's Zionist pursuits. He became a pivotal force in organizing self-defense units and fighting for Jewish minority rights in Russia. Jabotinsky was elected as a delegate to the 6th Zionist Congress, the last in which Theodor Herzl participated. During this period, Jabotinsky championed the spread of Hebrew language and culture throughout Russia, as well as the establishment of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

To be specific, Jabotinsky was a member of the 'working committee' appointed following the 12th Zionist Congress of 1913 (it was actually the 11th Zionist Congress that adopted the first operative decision to proceed with the establishment of a university in Jerusalem).  That committee of five was supplemented by Jabotinsky along with Weizmann, Ussishkin and Wolffsohn. Jabotinsky was right up there with the rest (see Shmuel Katz's "Lone Wolf").

However, in the spring of 1914 he had a falling out with Weizmann who had had a change of mind (he groveled for Rothschild money) and preferred a research institute model rather than a university with a medical school, science and, as Jabotinsky urged, a school of commerce.  His letter of April 20th caused Weizmann to distant Jabotinsky from the project.  On June 7, the Working Committee met and Jabotinsky, who summed up the argument as between "a decisive revolutionary act and a plaything" lost the vote.

However, in early 1928, the university's own board of governors as well as its Academic Council admitted that due to "Revisionist agitation', they were opening the school year.  He had written in 1925 after the groundbreaking ceremony that the university was in danger of becoming a bluff if it did not seek to aid the Jewish students of Europe rather than becoming a show-case ivory tower.  In fact, during 1927-28, he had organized a campaign among those students to write to the university officials and Zionist leaders urging the idea that Jabotinsky had been promoting a decade earlier.

In the vote, Weizmann opposed the Jabotinsky idea but it won they day.

Nevertheless, as it appears, he lost his place on the wall:

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What Is It About the Hebrew University?

Many are concerned over the increasing decline of Zionism and simple Israeli patriotism on Israeli campuses, especially the Hebrew University.

Look what I found, from 1931:-

MARCH 6, 1931
Jewish Rights at Wailing Wall: Lecturer at Hebrew University in Jerusalem Refused to Furnish Material Jerusalem, Mar. 3 (JTA) – A Lecturer of the Hebrew University refused, "on principle", to furnish the Jewish Counsel Before the International Wailing Wall Commission of the League of Nations with material necessary to support their case, Mr. A. Babkov, an old Zionist living in Tel Aviv, declared in an open letter published in the "Doar Hayom", addressed to Dr. David Yellin and Mr. Ben-Zvi, members of the Commission which drew up the Jewish brief. Mr. Babkov demanded an explanation why the fact of the Lecturer's refusal to c-operate was suppressed, and whether anything was done in the matter.
The Lecturer in question is Dr. Gershon Sholem, an authority on Kabala literature, who according to Mr. Babkov declined to compile a list of Kabala references to the Wailing Wall. Certain that there had been a misunderstanding, Mr. Babkov said, Dr. Yellin as the head of the Commission, personally applied to Dr. Sholem and was given a curt refusal. Mr. Ben-Zvi then saw him, but was told by Dr. Sholem that he was opposed on principle to the Jewish representations concerning the Wailing Wall.
Mr. Ben-Zvi informed the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Mr. Babkov's statement is substantially true and that, moreover, the Arab Counsel before the Wailing Wall Commission were furnished by the Hebrew University Library with books and documents to prepare their case against the Jews. Mr. Ben-Zvi said that he found no fault with the Library authorities for placing their collection at the service of the Moslem side, this being the function of a Library, but he failed to understand why the same courtesy was not extended to the Jewish side.
I have considered and still consider it a great misfortune to Jewry that Jews should engage in a trial over the Wailing Wall, Dr. Sholem has now replied in the "Doar Hayom", and I reserved the elementary right to myself as a private conscientious person to abstain from the active participation which was required of me, in steps which I deemed damaging and destructive. In my modest opinion, the Wailing Wall question cannot be settled through a hearing before a third party. My attitude towards furnishing documents in the Wailing Wall question was that of the Chief Rabbinate for Palestine, as recorded in the Shaw Commission Report.
Dr. Sholem further declares that he was never asked for the loan of books in his private collection or in that of the Library. The Jewish Counsel were free to obtain, he says, and undoubtedly they did obtain without hindrance, any books in the library they required, and in the one case when a research worker had applied to him for a book, he had supplied it. The Commission did not apply to him, Dr. Sholem adds, as a Lecturer of the Hebrew University, but had asked him, in his private capacity, to join in the scholarly side of the investigation for political and legal purposes. This he had declined to do, as he had explained to Dr. Yellin at the time, because of his objections to the entire procedure.

Amazing, eh?

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Arab Student Activity at Hebrew U.

I'll have the exact translation up soon but anyone can "read" the map. Anybody see Israel?