Joseph Trumpeldor
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| Joseph Trumpeldor | |
|---|---|
| December 1, 1880-March 1, 1920 | |
| Place of birth | Pyatigorsk, Russia |
| Place of death | Tel Hai, Israel |
Joseph Trumpeldor (b. December 1, 1880, d. March 1, 1920, Hebrew: יוסף טרומפלדור, Russian: Иосиф Трумпельдор) was an early Zionist activist, notable for helping organize the Zion Mule Corps and bringing Jewish immigrants to Palestine.
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[edit] Early life
Joseph Trumpeldor was born in Pyatigorsk, Russia. His father, Wulf Trumpeldor, served as a cantonist in the Caucasus War, lost an arm, and as a "useful Jew", was allowed to settle outside the Pale of Settlement. Originally in training as a dentist, Joseph Trumpeldor volunteered for the Russian army in 1902. During the Russo-Japanese War, he participated in the siege of Port Arthur, where he lost his left arm and was captured. He subsequently received four decorations for bravery, which made him the most decorated Jewish soldier in Russia {Cross of St. George}. In 1906 he became the first Jew in the army to receive an officer's commission.
[edit] World War One
In 1911 he emigrated to Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, living for a time at Kibbutz Degania. When World War I broke out, he went to Egypt, where together with Vladimir Jabotinsky he developed the idea of the Jewish legion to fight with the British against common enemies and, the Zion Mule Corps was formed in 1915, considered to be the first all-Jewish military unit organized in close to two thousand years, and the ideological beginning of the Israel Defense Forces. He saw action in Gallipoli with the Zion Mule Corps, where he was wounded in the shoulder. The Zion Mule Corps remained in Gallipoli through the entire campaign and was disbanded shortly after being transferred to Britain.
[edit] Political activist
Upon his return to Russia in 1918, he established the HeHalutz, a youth organization that prepared immigrants for aliyah (moving to Palestine), and returned to Palestine himself, then under the British Mandate. He was one of the founders of the Zionist Socialist movement in Palestine.
[edit] Death and remembrance
In 1920, Hashomer Hatzair asked Trumpeldor to organize the defence of its settlements in the Upper Galilee. Trumpeldor agreed and quickly took command of Tel Hai where he was killed during a battle with Arabs. After his death Trumpeldor became a symbol of Jewish self-defence, and his memorial day on the 11th day of Adar is officially noted in Israel every year.
[edit] Famous last words
His reputed last words, "Never mind, it is good to die for our country" (Ein davar, tov lamut be'ad artzeinu), have become famous in the pre-state Zionist movement and in Israel of the 1950s and 1960s. Though not often acknowledged as such in Israel, these words were not original with Trumpeldor and Zionism but were clearly a translation of Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, the famous line from the Roman lyrical poet Horace's Odes (iii 2.13), which can be rendered in English as: "It is sweet and honourable to die for one's country," or: "It is sweet and fitting to die for the fatherland", and which inspired numerous Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century nationalists patriots in various countries.
[edit] Legacy
Joseph Trumpeldor is regarded as a hero by both right wing and left wing Zionists. The Revisionist Zionist movement named its youth movement, Betar (future Likud Party) after him while the left wing Hashomer Hatzair remembers Trumpeldor as the defender of its kibbutzim and has established memorials in his honour. The town of Kiryat Shmona ("City of Eight") is named after Trumpeldor and the seven others who died defending Tel Hai.
