"My faith tells me that the day will come and my nation will be great and free again…"
Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky
Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky was born in an assimilated Jewish family in Odessa, a well-known center of Zionist activity at that time. He spent his childhood and adolescence there, remembered by the Jabotinsky family for the persecution and intimidation of the population as a result of anti-Jewish pogroms in the late nineteenth century. and left a mark on the work of the future Zionist leader.
From a young age, Vladimir was interested in journalism and worked for the newspapers "Odessky Listok" and "Odesky Noviny", and spent some time in Bern and Rome as a correspondent. His early publications in newspapers were known under the pseudonym "Altalena" (translated from Italian - "swing"). There Jabotinsky joined a Russian student group, where he became interested in Zionist and socialist ideas, which attracted the attention of the imperial authorities. After returning to Odessa, for "spreading dangerous ideas", in 1902 he was arrested for 2 months.
Impressed by the anti-Jewish pogrom in Chisinau in 1903, he initiated the creation of Jewish self-defense units. In 1903 he was elected a delegate to the Sixth Zionist Congress. Influenced by the speeches of T. Herzl, Jabotinsky began to study Hebrew and took the name "Ze'ev" (translated from Hebrew - "wolf"). At the beginning of the World War I, Jabotinsky, together with the famous Jewish figure Joseph Trumpeldor, created the Jewish Legion. - Jewish combat units in the British army. The goal of the Jewish legionaries was to liberate the Land of Israel from Ottoman rule. Vladimir took a direct part in this, becoming a lieutenant of the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers.
At the end of the war, dissatisfied with the moderation of the Zionists in negotiations with the British authorities, Jabotinsky created a separate Zionist federation based on a "re-vision" of relations between the Zionist movement and Great Britain. The main goals of the revisionist Zionist movement he founded were: the restoration of the Jewish brigade to protect the population and mass immigration to Palestine. The confrontation between the revisionists and the Zionist majority ended with the withdrawal of Jabotinsky's supporters from the World Zionist Organization in 1935.
Due to restrictions on the free immigration of Jews, Jabotinsky began to support armed resistance against British rule in Palestine, becoming commander of the Irgun, a revisionist underground military organization, in 1937. Jabotinsky used all possible means to save the Jewish population: from the information campaign to the organization of an armed uprising. He actively advocated the creation of a Jewish army, which was already formed in an independent Jewish state.
During a visit to the summer camp of the Beitar youth revisionist organization in New York on August 4, 1940, V. Jabotinsky died suddenly of a heart attack. 24 years later, in pursuance of the will of the deceased, Jabotinsky's body was handed over to the State of Israel and buried on Mount Herzl.
Jabotinsky's creative legacy includes a huge number of short stories, scientific works, philosophical works, and political treatises. But perhaps the most important achievement he sought all his life was the emergence of an independent Jewish state.
In honor of a prominent countryman in 1997 in Odessa on the facade of the house on the street Evreyska (Jewish), 1 (where Vladimir lived with his family), a memorial plaque was installed.
The library of the Museum "Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine" offers to immerse in the creative path of a famous figure of Jewish and Ukrainian history:
- Avineri Sh. The Origins of Zionism: Main Directions in Jewish Political Thought. M.: Mosty kultury, 2004. 480 p.
- Laker W. History of Zionism. M .: Kron-Press, 2000. 848 p.
- Litvak S. Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky on the role of national education and national culture in the spiritual revival of the Jewish people. Jewish thought through the ages. Collection of scientific works on Judaism, Jewish history and culture. Issue. 4. Dnepropetrovsk, 2000. P. 156–160.
- Mosyakov V. Vladimir Jabotinsky and the theory of interethnic relations. Zaporozhye Jewish Readings: Reports and Messages (October 28-29, 2010). Dnipropetrovsk: Tkuma Center, 2011. P. 21–26.
- Sokolyansky M. Common roots: Vladimir Jabotinsky and Isaac Babel. Yegupets: Artistic and journalistic almanac of the Judaica Association of Ukraine. Kyiv: DUKH I LITERA, 2002. № 10. P. 248–264.
- Sheps Y., Nedava I. Vladimir Jabotinsky: milestones in life. Theodor Herzl: a man who paved the way for political Zionism. Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 1998. 288 p.