Happy Birthday!

Vladamir Jabotinsky

was born 10/18/1880 (NS)
(d. Aug 3, 1940)

He founded the British-sponsored Jewish Legion to fight in then-Palestine in the First World War; organized Jewish defense in Jerusalem against Arab rioters in 1920 for which he was sentenced to a jail term (later quashed); became a member of the World Zion-ist Executive; founded the more effective Zionist Revisionists, Haganah, Irgun, the activist student movement Betar & the Likid party; most importantly, was the only major Zionist to become active is saving European Jews from Holocaust. And before Statehood, he abetted illegal blockade-busting immigration to Israel. Jabotinsky was so controversial his name was essentially suppressed until Begin was elected. Some today on several continents still froth at the mouth discussing him.

          It does not matter, brother,
          From where you came or why
          To board this moving deck.
          Crammed from hole to smokestack,
          It's a battleship - this wreck
          Though it has no guns.
          We are warriors thereon,
          Though we have no arms of iron,
          Yet we have an iron will,
          Against all odds
          To build the future of our land
          Win we shall.
          Our nation and our land
          We shall make them live again.
  
                  "Song of the Illegal Immigrant" (interpreted from Hebrew) by William R. Perl
                  as reprinted in The Four-Front War, copyright. A song of the Betar; lyrics

Copyright © 2005, Abby Sale - all rights reserved
What are Happy's all about?    See Notes and Index