Subject: JUICE Pioneers of Israel - #2
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 22:44:57 +0000
To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
From: JUICE Administration <juice@virtual.co.il>
To: pioneers@virtual.co.il
Subject: JUICE Pioneers 2
==============================================================
World Zionist Organization
Jewish University in CyberspacE
juice@wzo.org.il birnbaum@wzo.org.il
http://www.wzo.org.il
==============================================================
Course: Pioneers of Israel
Lecture: 2/12
Lecturer: Doron Geller
Ha Shomer
Although Zionist settlement in Palestine began in 1881, the central elements
which later came to characterize the Israeli ethos - namely, Jewish labor
and self-defense - were conspicuously absent, with the exception of the
Bilu, before 1904. It was only during the period of the Second Aliyah
(1904-1914) that the people, institutions, and mentality which foreigners
and Israelis themselves have for years identified as the "sabra" - a worker
and a soldier, a tiller of the soil and a brave, even heroic defender of his
or her family, land and nation if the need arose - became characteristic of
the Jewish settler in Palestine. The first individuals to epitomize and
gradually instill this ideal in large segments of the Yishuv named
themselves after Simeon Bar Giora, a heroic defender of the Jewish people
during the Second Temple period. They later came to be known simply as
Ha-Shomer - "The Watchmen".
In September 1907 ten young men convened in the attic of Yitzhak ben-Zvi's
house (he was later to become president of Israel) and decided to set up a
group dedicated to Jewish self-defense in Palestine. He and others were
ashamed that in many of the settlements where Arab workers outnumbered the
Jewish workers in any case, (this was certainly the case among the
settlements established during the First Aliyah of 1881 to 1903; less so in
settlements set up after 1904), Moroccan or Circassian guards were employed,
who were all too frequently little better than bandits themselves.
Moreover, it was a pattern alarmingly reminiscent of the Diaspora; the Jew
was once again relying on the gentile to protect him.
Israel Shochat became the prime organizer and first leader of Bar-Giora. He
drew his support from other young men who, like himself, had been active in
Jewish self-defense in the Russian town of Homel. This activism had been a
major psychological breakthrough for some young Jews - although it was not
particularly effective when pogroms, even more vicious and barbaric than
those in 1881-1882, broke out all over Russia in 1903. The Second Aliyah
was largely a reaction to these renewed pogroms, as the first Aliyah had
been to the violence in the 1880s. In both cases far more Eastern European
Jews emigrated to the United States than to Palestine. But by 1903-1904,
the Zionist movement was gaining legitimacy among Eastern European Jews.
This was in no small part due to Theodor Herzl's political activity, which
began in 1894. The Zionist cause was further strengthened by writer Chaim
Nachman Bialik's stark portrayal of Jewish helplessness, fear, and
unwillingness or inability to defend themselves when faced with the Russian
mobs who murdered, raped, and plundered Jewish communities at will in 1903.
Thus it is strange, in my opinion, to see how little the idea of
self-defense and taking up arms took hold among the new immigrants to
Palestine beginning in 1904. The leading figures of Labor Zionism - A.D.
Gordon, Berl Katznelson, and David Ben-Gurion, for example - put far more
emphasis on building a renewed and revitalized Jewish nation based on Jewish
labor. Social justice and individual regeneration through labor was far
more important to them than becoming the first Hebrew warriors in
Eretz-Israel in almost 2,000 years.
Thus the Jewish guards - who were also devoted to labor ideals - were an
anomaly. And that was reflected in the reaction they received from the
first Jewish settlements they offered their services to in the Galilee, such
as Sejera and Mescha. The veterans of the First Aliyah were hesitant to
take on the young guards of Bar-Giora partly because they were unaccustomed
to Jews acting as policeman or offering physical protection. They were also
at loggerheads with the labor ideology Bar-Giora brought with them - which,
despite Bilu, was foreign to the prevailing capitalism of the First Aliyah
settlers.
Quality, however, usually proves its own worth. The young guards quickly
set about proving their prowess. They stole several animals from under the
nose of the Circassian guard at the settlement of Sejera. The young
guardsmen returned the livestock the next day. At that point the settlers
were willing to give them a chance.
The Bar-Giora group proved their quality again and again thereafter. And it
was no accident that they became so effective. Training programs were
exceptionally rigorous. They were trained in military tactics, horseback
riding, night maneuvers, reconnaissance, direction finding, and spoken
Arabic, in order to enable them to be the most effective deterrent to Arab
bandits they could possibly be. And they were a deterrent - they soon
acquired the respect and even admiration of the local Arabs, who were
unaccustomed to such behavior and bearing from Jews.
Sejera's security markedly improved. When a quarrel broke out between the
Moroccan guards and the Jewish settlers at Mescha, the Bar-Giora were called
in and remained. By 1909 with two villages won over, Shochat realized that
a small and secret organization as they were - there were only 8 members in
1907 and only 26 by 1909 - was no longer adequate. They gave themselves a
new name - Ha-Shomer - and it was their express intention to change the
character of the Jewish settlers in Palestine from one of Jewish workers to
one of both workers and guardsmen. Thus they consciously or unconsciously
evoked the memory of the Biblical account of Nehemiah, in which Nehemiah
describes how Jewish exiles returning from Babylon in the 6th century B.C.E.
worked with one hand rebuilding the temple and the other ready to pick up a
weapon at a moment's notice. Neither in the 6th century B.C.E. nor in the
early years of the twentieth century were the non-Jewish locals pleased with
the Jews returning in significant numbers to Zion.
Other settlements rapidly fell under Ha-Shomer's protection. In Beit Gan a
Circassian guard who had been dismissed from his post murdered his former
employer. The Shomrim were called in. Soon after the settlements of
Yavniel, Menachemia, Sarona and Kinneret took them on. By 1911 they were
working in the hills of Samaria. They were becoming well-known and evoking
respect among both Jews and Arabs. They were called to guard duty in
Judaea, and then in the coastal plain. Rishon LeZion, Ben Shemen, and Be'er
Ya'akov came under their protection. Few settlers ever regretted their
choice. The Shomrim were prepared to pay with their lives in defense of
Jewish honor and property - something no Moroccan or Circassian guard would
do. The Shomrim also demanded something in return for their service. In
line with their labor and self-defense ideology, they demanded that Jewish
laborers be employed in the plantation colonies, whereas they had often been
turned away in favor of cheap and experienced Arab labor. Slowly Ha-Shomer
began to change the character of Palestinian society. Hebrew as a spoken
language was beginning to flower on the eve of World War I. The idea of
Jewish labor was in full force. Jewish self-defense was increasingly
recognized not as an aberration, but as a necessity and was viewed with
pride. By 1914, 100 Shomrim were available for service throughout
Palestine, all ready on a moment's notice to go wherever security was needed
or danger threatened.
A reputation for aggressive competence can often deter a potential
aggressor. And so it was with Ha-Shomer and the local Arabs. Ezekiel
Hankin had been stationed near Ben Shemen, and his impressive horse, the
envy of the Arabs in the coastal plain, was finally stolen from him after
repeated attempts. No one knew who did it. We go to Maurice Samuel's
HARVEST IN THE DESERT for an account of the incident: ".nearby there was a
famous sheikh, who was known to wield great influence over the Arabs. Ten
Shomrim were rounded up. Armed, mounted, and in full regalia, they came out
to the sheikh on a "visit". They were received with all the high ceremonial
courtesy of Arab hospitality, and bidden to an elaborate feast. They talked
with their hosts of this and that, of the weather, the crops, the goodness
of God and the meaning of life. Throughout the feast no mention was made of
the stolen animal. But at the end of the meal, the spokesman of the
Shomrim.remarked quite casually that a horse had strayed from the colony of
Ben Shemen. It might conceivably have been stolen, though this was
doubtful, since there were no thieves in the neighborhood. However, the
horse was easily recognized since it was an exceptionally beautiful and
high-spirited creature. Should anyone know of its whereabouts, he was
politely requested to bring the animal to Ben Shemen".
Before the Shomrim had left their hosts, the horse was back at the colony.
At Meschah, the Arabs had managed to gain possession of an animal belonging
to the Jewish settlement, and asked for a reward. The Shomrim did not argue
or make threats. They merely got hold of an animal belonging to the Arabs.
A courteous exchange was then made.
One particularly interesting episode of the Shomrim includes two young men,
Avrahamson and Fleischer, who were sent to live among the Bedouin nomads and
learn their ways. The Bedouin in any case served as a romantic, manly role
model for many tough-minded and visionary young Jews in Palestine in the
early years of this century. The freedom, weapons-carrying, horseback
riding and sexual dominance of the Bedouin Arabs was the antithesis of the
ghetto Jew - but of course very similar to Hebrew and Jewish patriarchal
figures in the Bible, which did inspire certain types of settlers, among
them the Shomrim, to dashing exploits worthy of their ancient heritage.
(British military adventurers in the Near East, notably T.E. Lawrence and
Philby of Arabia - both well-deserving of the title "sand-mad Englishmen",
as depicted in Robert D. Kaplan's work THE ARABISTS - similarly admired and
emulated Bedouin ways. They perhaps saw in the Bedouin the antithesis of
the emotionally and sexually repressed Victorian culture in which they had
been raised). Many young Shomrim adopted Arab dress, and for some, their
dream was to integrate among the Bedouin; for others, to convert the Bedouin
to Judaism.
Avramson and Fleischer's task, however, was merely to learn Bedouin ways.
Accordingly, they lived with the Bedouin for two years, dressed like them,
ate their food, spoke their language, and learned their mannerisms and
customs. They learned many of the wily tricks the Bedouin were so renowned
for. Among other things, they learned "the thieving techniques of roving
shepherds, how to prey on neighboring tribes, and how to graze flocks at
night in the fields of others". Avrahamson in particular became very
popular among the Bedouin. The sheikh of the tribe he was living with
"pleaded with him to go over to the Muslim faith. He would receive a
beautiful girl and a flock of one hundred and fifty sheep". Avrahamson
politely but firmly replied in the negative; it was merely his intention, he
informed the disappointed sheikh, to learn the ways of the Bedouin and then
return to his own people.
Although the ranks of the Shomrim had grown from 8 in 1907 to nearly 100 a
mere seven years later, the Yishuv was demanding more guardsmen than
Ha-Shomer could supply. A growing consensus emerged among the Shomrim that
a professional, elite class of bodyguards would not be enough in times of
danger; all farmers and workers would have to learn how to effectively
handle weapons and defend themselves. Slowly but surely, Ha-Shomer's
emphasis on national solidarity, socialist/Zionist doctrine and self-defense
was influencing all aspects of the Yishuv. Jewish workers were gaining
employment more and more frequently in the capitalistic settlements of the
First Aliyah, and new immigrants unaffiliated with Ha-Shomer but sharing
their socialist ideology were setting up cooperative settlements - soon
known as kibbutzim - all over Palestine. Perhaps most important, due to the
courage and vigilance of Ha-Shomer, the idea that Jews were easy prey for
Arab bandits was rapidly fading.
Despite the pride the Shomrim took in their work, it was not always
romantic. The Shomrim earned their reputation in blood. Many of them fell
all over Palestine in defense of Jewish settlements and Jewish life. Theirs
was a courage born of conviction; a Jewish society based on communal
solidarity and Jewish labor was a noble one in their eyes, but Jewish
self-defense had to go hand in hand with it. There was a recognition, too,
that all progress made in the social sphere would come to naught unless
there was Jewish defense force willing to look after it and protect it.
This was a revolutionary concept that the Jews had not experienced for
nearly two millennia. And now, due to the efforts of less then a dozen young
men in 1907, their dreams - born of the necessity the time demanded - were
coming to fruition and being fulfilled.
Ha-Shomer did not last as an organization after World War I. But it didn't
really have to. It had achieved its purpose. During the First World War,
many young Jewish settlers volunteered to serve in the Jewish Legion, and
underwent military training and some limited battle experience under the
auspices of the British army. After World War I more and more Jews
underwent paramilitary training. Soon most males and many females were
expected to be able to defend themselves, police their own settlements, as
well as engage in productive agricultural work. The fact that this became
accepted among large segments of the Yishuv was certainly due to the
pioneering influence of Ha-Shomer. We must recall that self-defense had
become an historical anomaly for Jews despite a long and tragic history of
persecution in the Diaspora. Even the Jews who immigrated to Palestine, and
were disgusted and enraged by the failure of most Jewish communities in
Russia to engage in even the most rudimentary elements of self-defense - did
not make self-defense and paramilitary training a top priority for
themselves. It was a big leap for them, and not many took it.
Thus the Jews had a dire shortage of heroes when they came to settle in
Palestine. The Shomrim, with their courage, initiative, and resolution -
began to fill that role for them. Soon enough, all members of the Yishuv
were able to draw inspiration from the Shomrim. Soon enough, a Jewish hero
in the modern age became less and less of an anomaly, and increasingly a
reality. We will close with a fittingly moving quotation from Maurice
Samuel: "There is hardly a corner of Jewish Palestine, hardly a field, where
some Shomer did not fall in the early days - long before there was talk of
Arab riots, and of Arab revolt. If the Yishuv of later years knew how to
face the threat of mass attack without panic or retreat, the memory of the
first Shomrim had not a little to do with it".
Bibliography
1) Walter Laquer, A HISTORY OF ZIONISM
2) Ira Levin, THE SETTLERS
3) Howard M. Sachar, A HISTORY OF ISRAEL
4) Maurice Samuel, HARVEST IN THE DESERT
5) Anita Shapira, LAND AND POWER
6) Avraham Ya'ari, THE GOODLY HERITAGE
Next week we will be learning about the legendary pioneer Aaron David
Gordon, who at the age of 48, abandoned his family and former lifestyle in
Russia to work alongside the young pioneers of the Second Aliyah. Stay tuned!
***************************************************************************