Before and After World War I How Jewish Self Defense Developed

 Nadene Goldfoot  

                                                                

                              Our First 1909 Jewish Defense Force:  Hashomer

Our 1st Aliyah from Europe was in 1880.  The term "1st Aliyah" generally refers to the first major wave of Jewish immigration to Ottoman Palestine, which occurred between 1882 and 1903. This period, also known as the Agricultural Aliyah, saw an influx of approximately 25,000-35,000 Jewish immigrants, primarily from Eastern Europe and Yemen. Motivated by Zionist ideals and fleeing anti-Semitic violence, particularly the pogroms in Russia, these immigrants sought to establish a Jewish homeland. 

Hashomer (The Watchmen), founded in 1909 was a Jewish self-defense organization in Palestine, active in the early 20th century. It aimed to protect Zionist settlements and Jewish agricultural communities from attacks. Images from Getty Images show Hashomer members, often depicted with rifles, guarding settlements.    

They first were commanded by Israel Shochat.  They did 2 things;  defense of Jewish settlements and struggle for the employment of Jewish workers.  They established a few labor settlements during WWI.  After the Allies won which to themwas a British conquest, it worked with the upper Galilee police force and directed selfdefense activities during the riots of 1920-1921.  Its function was later taken over bythe Haganah.                                       

Hajj Mohammed Amin El Husseini (1893-1974) By 1921, the high commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel of the British Government, only Jew in  it, appointed Husseini as Mufti of Jerusalem and head of the Supreme Moslem Council...Little did he understand what Husseini's goals had been  

                                Great Britain in Palestine

• 1917: The Balfour Declaration pledged British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine, sparking growing Arab opposition.
• 1919: Amin al-Husseini began organizing small groups called "fedayeen" to oppose Jewish settlement in Palestine. These groups launched attacks against Jewish farms in the Jordan Valley and Galilee, according to Israel My Glory.
• April 1920: The Nabi Musa riots erupted in Jerusalem. While a British commission report (the Palin Report) blamed both sides, al-Husseini was accused of inciting the Arab crowds, according to Wikipedia. These riots caused damage to Jewish property and resulted in deaths on both sides, according to Wikipedia; and other sources. 

These significant riots and attacks on Jewish homes occurred primarily in the 1920s and later, as Arab opposition to Jewish immigration and land purchases intensified. The first significant riots, which included attacks on Jewish homes, occurred in Jerusalem on April 4, 1920. 

                                                             

                     Haganah June 15, 1920

• Establishment of Jewish Self Defense : In June 1920, the Haganah ("The Defense") was founded. Initially, it was a loosely organized network of local defense groups and continued till 1948 when Israel was declared a country.  They realized that under British administration as they held the 30 year mandate, Jews were not being protected from Arab attacks.  They worked on making it even stronger after the 1929 Arab riots which resulted in a British policy of appeasement of the Arabs.  

The Jaffa riots were a series of violent riots in Mandatory Palestine on May 1–7, 1921, which began as a confrontation between two Jewish groups but developed into an attack by Arabs on Jews and then reprisal attacks by Jews on Arabs. The rioting began in Jaffa and spread to other parts of the country. The riot resulted in the deaths of 47 Jews and 48 Arabs, with 146 Jews and 73 Arabs wounded. total dead, 95                                                  

                            

                     Meanwhile in the United States

The Roaring 20's The social and cultural features known as the Roaring Twenties began in leading metropolitan centers and spread widely in the aftermath of World War I. The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of novelty associated with modernity and a break with tradition, through modern technology such as automobiles, moving pictures, and radio, bringing "modernity" to a large part of the population. Formal decorative frills were shed in favor of practicality in both daily life and architecture. At the same time, jazz and dancing rose in popularity, in opposition to the mood of World War I. As such, the period often is referred to as the Jazz Age.  Lots of anti-Semitism developing, here in classes; not allowed in gentile societies, work places, etc.  

The 1929 stock market crash, also known as the Great Crash, was a shock; an extreme sharp decline in US stock market values that took place in October of that year. It is considered a contributing factor to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Many committed suicide.  

                             Back In Palestine

                                   

Joseph Vladimirovich Trumpeldor: (November 21, 1880 – March 1, 1920)  died at age 39,   was a Russian Zionist activist who helped organize the Zion Mule Corps and bring Jewish immigrants to Palestine. He was killed while defending the settlement of Tel Hai in 1920 and subsequently became a Jewish national hero

March 1, 1920:  The Battle of Tel Hai was fought on 1 March 1920 between Arab and Jewish forces at the village of Tel Hai in Northern Galilee. In the course of the event, a Shiite Arab militia, accompanied by Bedouin from a nearby village, entered a Jewish agricultural locality of Tel Hai in search of French soldiers. Confusion over the presence of the militias subsequently led to shots being fired and a firefight breaking out. In the aftermath of the fighting, 8 Jews and 5 Arabs were killed. Joseph Trumpeldor, the commander of Jewish defenders of Tel Hai, was shot in the hand and stomach, and died while being evacuated to Kfar Giladi that evening. Tel Hai was eventually abandoned by the Jews and burned by the Arab militia.  total=14 deaths.  

With a national monument in Upper Galilee, Israel commemorates the deaths of 8 Jews, 6 men and 2 women, including Joseph Trumpeldor. The memorial is best known for an emblematic statue of a roaring lion representing Trumpeldor and his comrades. The city of Kiryat Shemona, literally Town of the Eight was named after them.

The 1920 Nebi Musa riots or 1920 Jerusalem riots took place in British-controlled part of Occupied Enemy Territory Administration between Sunday, 4 April, and Wednesday, 7 April 1920 in and around the Old City of Jerusalem. Five Jews were killed and several hundred injured; four Arabs were killed, and eighteen injured; seven Britons were injured. The riots coincided with and are named after the Nebi Musa festival, which was held every year on Easter Sunday, and followed rising tensions in Arab–Jewish relations. The events came shortly after the Battle of Tel Hai and the increasing pressure on Arab nationalists in Syria in the course of the Franco-Syrian War.  9 killed.   Large numbers of Muslims traditionally gathered for a religious procession), which included slogans referencing Zionist immigration and previous confrontations around outlying Jewish villages in the Galilee. The trigger which turned the procession into a riot is not known with certainty.                               

Prince Faisal I bin Husssein would have his hands full with his future citizens.  He had made friends with Chaim Weizmann and had hoped the Jews would help his Arabs learn more from them, but as it was, they would rather be enemies.  

The Arab king of both Iraq and Syria was Faisal I bin Hussein. He first served as King of Syria in 1920, but was ousted by French forces. He then became King of Iraq in 1921, a position he held until his death in 1933. His people's attitude turned him away from the plight of the Jews.                 First Self Defense  1929.

The Faisal–Weizmann agreement was signed by Emir Faisal, the third son of Hussein ibn Ali al-Hashimi, King of the short-lived Kingdom of Hejaz, and Chaim Weizmann, President of the Zionist Organization on 3 January 1919. Signed two weeks before the start of the Paris Peace Conference, it was presented by the Zionist delegation alongside a March 1919 letter written by T. E. Lawrence in Faisal's name to American Zionist leader Felix Frankfurter as two documents to argue that the Zionist plans for Palestine had prior approval of Arabs.

The Arab-Israeli conflict exploded into its modern manifestation with the Jerusalem riots of 1929, centered around the use of, access to, and ownership of, the Western Wall.

• Evolution of Defense: The 1929 Arab riots triggered a transformation in the Haganah. It expanded, encompassing most Jewish youth and adults in settlements and thousands in cities. The organization implemented training programs, established arms depots, and began underground arms production, says the Jewish Virtual Library.  
•  Jewish self-defense in Palestine began with smaller, local groups like Bar-Giora and Hashomer before the 1920s. The need for a more comprehensive defense system became clear with the Arab riots in the early 1920s, leading to the formation and subsequent expansion of the Haganah as a nationwide, organized force.                                                          
  
                                Avraham 'Yair" Stern, leader of the Irgun
• 1931-1948  The Irgun, officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the older and larger Jewish Haganah. The Irgun engaged in armed conflict against both Palestinian Arabs and the British authorities during the Mandate period. 
  
• 1939-1942;  Lohame Herut Israel or   Irgun Tzevai Leumi, known to British as the "Stern Gang."  Yair Stern left the Irgun Tzevai Leumi  in 1939 which he had been leader, because of its refusal to continue anti-British activities in Palestine during World War II.  He formed an underground organization later known as Lohame Herut Israel which carried out acts of sabotage, etc.  Stern was killed by British police while being arrested.                                      
  
  Stanley Goldfoot was chief of Intelligence for the Stern Group.  Born in 1914, he made Aliyah right after high school.  He's my 2nd to 3rd cousin.  I met him at the King David Hotel which it was said he planned to blow up long ago but denied to me.  
  
•    Stanley Goldfoot with first wife and two daughters.  He was born in   May 1914  in Johannesburg, South Africa.    
• It was said he played an important part in the assassination of Count Bernadotte, an operation planned in his apartment. After the assassination he was arrested with other Lehi members and imprisoned in the Jaffa, Akko, and then Jalameh Prisons. After over five months, he was released during the general amnesty. He worked in journalism afterwards, and did business in the US two years. For seven years he co-operated with Dr. Yisrael Eldad  publishing  the Times of Israel, with a circulation of about 50,000 copies in the US and Israel. He published the international edition of Dr. Eldad’s book, The Jewish Revolution. Stanley wrote LETTER TO THE WORLD. (read below)  Stanley lives in Jerusalem with his wife Helen, née Milner. He is the father of three daughters and two sons (including those from previous marriages) and grandfather to seven.
• Resource:
• Letter to the World (in my blog ) https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2023/09/letter-to-world-from-stanley-goldfoot.html
• Letter to the World by Stanley Goldfoot:  https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-letter-to-the-world-from-jerusalem-2019/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_casualties_of_war
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Trumpeldor
• https://lehi.org.il/en/goldfoot-stanley/
• The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Aliyah#:~:text=The%20First%20Aliyah%20(Hebrew:%20%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%99%D7%94,had%20grown%20to%20approximately%2055%2C000.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashomer#:~:text=Hashomer%20(Hebrew:%20%D7%94%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%A8%2C%20',Israel%20Giladi%20and%20Mendel%20Portugali.
• https://jewoughtaknow.com/king-faisal-i-bin-hussein#:~:text=King%20of%20Syria%2C%20King%20of,King%20of%20Iraq%20in%201921.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffa_riots#:~:text=Dozens%20of%20British%2C%20Arab%2C%20and,stabbed%20and%20beaten%20with%20sticks.