Shlomo Ben-Yosef

Shlomo Ben-Yosef

Shlomo Ben-Yosef (b. May 7, 1913 in Poland as Shalom Tabachnik, d. June 29, 1938) was a noted (and controversial) member of the Revisionist Zionist underground Irgun Zvai Leumi. He is most noted for his participation in an April 21, 1938 attack on an Arab bus, specifically intended as a retaliation for an earlier attack by Arabs against Jews, and emblematic as a rejection of the establishment policy of "Havlagah", or restraint. Precisely for this reason (and for reportedly having been the first Jew executed in "Eretz Yisrael" since the time of the Romans), Ben-Yosef is revered in the highest terms by right-wing Zionist groups such as "Betar", the "Irgun" and the Jewish Defense League and the Kach movement.

Background

Tabachnik made aliyah to Palestine in 1937. He joined the nationalist Betar village of Rosh Pina and changed his name to Shlomo Ben-Yosef. He worked at the Haifa port to help support his community and later joined the Rosh Pina cell of the Irgun.

April 21, 1938 revenge attack

Although accounts differ in the details, beyond dispute is that Ben-Yosef, along with two Irgun (or variously, Betar) associates, Abraham Shein and Shalom Djuravin, specifically premeditated the attack as a retribution for an earlier attack in which six Jews were killed (among them a young woman who was also raped.)

The Israeli-British historian Avi Shlaim recounts the April 21, 1938 incident as follows:

:"On 21 April 1938, after several weeks of planning, he and two of his colleagues from the Irgun (Etzel) ambushed an Arab bus at a bend on a mountain road near Safad. They had a hand-grenade, a gun and a pistol. Their plan was to destroy the engine so that the bus would fall off the side of the road and all the passengers would be killed. When the bus approached, they fired at it (not in the air, as Mailer has it) but the grenade lobbed by Ben Yosef did not detonate. The bus with its screaming and terrified passengers drove on." [cite web
title = Bombers not Martyrs
author = Avi Shlaim
date = January 6, 2005
publisher = London Review of Books
url = http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n01/letters.html
]

Notably, Ben-Yosef's attack failed its objectives, in that no Arabs were actually killed.Fact|date=February 2007 However, the incident occurred at the crest of the 1936-1938 Arab Revolt, and during a high point in tensions between British authorities and the Revisionist Zionist movement; in any case Ben-Yosef was arrested, tried, convicted and hanged by the British on June 29 1938. According to Shlaim, as the verdict was announced, Shein and Djuravin stood up and shouted at the top of their voices: "Long live the Kingdom of Israel on both banks of the Jordan!" In conversations with friends, Ben-Yosef's last words were "Havlagah is fatal."Fact|date=February 2007

References

External links

* http://www.etzel.org.il/english/people/benyosef.htm - profile at the Irgun website
* http://www.betar.org/history/hist-h.htm - profile at betar.org
* http://www.betar.co.uk/betaris/shlomo.php - profile at the UK Betarist website
* [http://www.jdl.org/misc/heroes/yosef.shtml True Jewish Heroes: Shlomo Ben-Yosef] at the JDL website
* http://www.csuohio.edu/tagar/shlomo.htm - Letters from Ben-Yosef at Acre Prison


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Shlomo Ben-Yosef — Shalom Tabashnik (Lutsk, Ucrania, 7 de mayo de 1913 – Mandato Británico de Palestina, 29 de junio de 1938), más conocido como Shlomo Ben Yosef, fue un joven miembro del Beitar y del Irgún. Se lo conoce por haber sido el primer judío ahorcado por… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman — (1886 1969), יוסף שלמה כהנמן, was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and rosh yeshiva of the Ponevezh yeshiva. He was a renowned Torah and Talmudic scholar. Biography Rabbi Kahaneman was born in Kuhl, Lithuania, a small town of about 500 of which about a… …   Wikipedia

  • Yosef Sprinzak — (hebräisch ‏יוסף שפרינצק‎; * 8. Dezember 1885 in Moskau, Russisches Reich; † 28. Januar 1959) war ein führender Zionist in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhu …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Shlomo Ganzfried — Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried (Solomon ben Joseph Ganzfried; Hungary, 1804 to 1886) was an Orthodox rabbi and posek best known as author of the work of Halakha (Jewish law), the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (Hebrew: קיצור שולחן ערוך, The Abbreviated Shulchan… …   Wikipedia

  • Ben Zion Halberstam (The First) — Grand Rabbi Ben Zion Halberstam, (1874–1941), was born in Bikofsk in 1874 to his father Grand Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam (1847–1905) of Bobov. At the age of thirty one he succeeded his father as the second Rebbe of Bobov. He was a scion of the… …   Wikipedia

  • Yosef Sholom Eliashiv — Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv (יוסף שלום אלישיב) (born April 19, 1910) is a Haredi rabbi and posek (arbiter of Jewish law) who lives in Jerusalem, Israel. Presently well into his nineties, he is active and remains the paramount leader of Israel s… …   Wikipedia

  • Yosef Maimon — Rabbi Yosef ben Moshe Maimon Maravi (b. Tetouan or Meknes 1741, d. Bukhara, 7 December 1822) is the spiritual leader credited with helping strengthen religious observance and introducing the Sephardic liturgy to the Bukharian Jewish community.… …   Wikipedia

  • Ben-Gurion-Universität des Negev — Vorlage:Infobox Hochschule/Mitarbeiter fehltVorlage:Infobox Hochschule/Professoren fehlt Ben Gurion Universität des Negev Gründung 1969 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Shlomo Amar — Rabbi Shlomo Amar ( he. שלמה עמאר; born in 1948 in Casablanca) has been the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel since his appointment in 2003. His colleague is Rabbi Yona Metzger, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel.Rabbi Amar was born in Casablanca,… …   Wikipedia

  • Shlomo Kluger — Solomon ben Judah Aaron Kluger (1783–June 9, 1869) ( he. שלמה קלוגר), born at Komarow, Russian Poland, was chief dayyan and preacher of Brody, Galicia. He was successively rabbi at Rawa (Russian Poland), Kulikow (Galicia), and Józefów (Lublin),… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”