First American Legionnaire Sails to Settle in Legionnaire Colony

Samuel Vildavsky of this city who will leave for Palestine next Friday on the S.S. Majestic, will be the first American member of the Jewish Legion to settle with his family in the newly established Legionnaire colony at Wadi Hawareth, in Palestine.

To a representative of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Vildavsky expressed his gratitude to the Jewish National Fund for making it possible for him and for his colleagues in the Jewish Legion to settle on the soil for which they willingly went to battle during the world war.

Viewing himself as an advance guard, Vildavsky plans to pave the way for the others who are to follow. It is his intention to inform them as soon as possible of the possibilities for permanent settlement and what will be required of them once they arrive in the Holy Land. To Vildavsky this is a dream of many years come true, and he and his colleagues are particularly thankful to the Zionist Organization of Canada, who purchased the Wadi Hawareth area, thus making it possible for the Jewish National Fund to assign land capable of supporting 100 families to members of the Jewish Legion.

Vildavsky was born in Taganrog, in the Don Cossack region of Russia in 1893. He attended college in Kiev and with a group of young students sailed for Palestine in 1913. Finding himself improperly equipped to do agricultural work in Palestine, he proceeded to the University of Toulouse in France, where he studied agriculture and returned to Palestine in 1914. Following the outbreak of the war he was forced to leave Palestine by the Turks and proceeded to Egypt, where he met Colonel Paterson and Mr. Jabotinsky who were then recruiting men for the Zion Mule Corps, which won undying glory in the British campaign in the Dardanelles. Vildavsky went through the entire campaign with the Zionists and when the Corps was disbanded after the withdrawal of the British forces from Gallipoli, he came to the United States where he returned to the study of agriculture at Davies College in Berkeley, Cal.

When the decision to form a Jewish Battalion for service in Palestine was announced in 1917, Vildavsky rejoined and proceeded to Palestine where he participated in General Allenby’s victorious drive against the Turks. After the armistice he settled as a Chalutz in the colony of Shechunath Borochov.

Mrs. Vildavsky, who preceded her husband to Palestine, has visited the site of the colony and reports that it is on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and that the soil is adapted for orange plantations; that the well is already being dug to supply water to the groves. The colony is being parceled out among the 100 families it is expected to support, and the first shelters are being built.