Alexander Zaïd

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Monument in memory of Alexander Zaid near Bet She'arim national park, statue by David Polus

Alexander Zaid (1886 − July 10, 1938) was one of the founders of the Jewish secret defense organizations Bar Giora and Hashomer, and a prominent figure of the Second Aliyah.

1 Life
2 Honours
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Life

Zaid was born in 1886 at the village of Zima, in Irkutsk Oblast, Siberia. His father had been deported from Vilna to Siberia due to revolutionary activity and his mother belonged to the Subbotniks cult. In 1889 the mother was murdered and the family moved to Irkutsk. In 1901 the Zaid family returned to Vilna but after two years the father died too. The orphaned teenager met with Michael Helpern, one of the figures of the First Aliyah, who had come to Vilna encouraging emigration to Palestine. Zaid emigrated to the land of Israel alone in 1904 under the auspices of the Zionist Labour Movement, worked at a winery in Rishon Letzion, as a construction worker in Ben Shemen and as a stonemason in Jerusalem.

In 1907 he took part in setting up the first Jewish organization of guards, Bar Giora, and two years later, in 1909, he took part in setting up the Hashomer organization intending to spread Jewish protection throughout all the colonies in the land of Israel. Zaid was also involved in setting up the settlements of Kfar Gil'adi and Tel Hay. In 1926, after the dissolution of the Hashomer organization in the interest of forming the Haganah, Zaid moved to Sheyh Ibrich in the Valley of Jezreel and was hired there as a guard by the JNF. During his life he was assaulted twice by Arab bandits, and survived.[1] The third time took place in the night of July 10, 1938, when he was murdered by Qassem el-T'baash.

[edit] Honours

Alexander Zaid is commemorated in a statue by David Polus erected in the pasture fields belonging to the Zaid family, in the proximity of the Beit She'arim National Park in Kiryat Tiv'on, which depicts him riding a horse and overlooking the Valley of Jezreel. Additionally the settlements Beyt Zaid and Givat Zaid were named after him. In memory of Zaid, the poet Alexander Penn wrote the poem "Adamah, Admati" ("Land, My Land").