The Zionist Revisionists, opposition to the Weizmann regime within the World Zionist Organization, and the B’rith Trumpeldor, Jewish youth organization, are making plans for a wide-spread celebration of the fiftieth birthday of Vladimir Jabotinsky in October. Jabotinsky is the world leader of the Zionist Revisionists.
Born in Odessa, Jabotinsky studied law at the Universities of Rome and Berne. In 1889 he began his notable literary career as a contributor of stories, articles and poems to the Russian press. The persecutions to which Russian Jewry was subjected at the beginning of this century led him to interest himself in Jewish problems. His Zionist activity dates from about 1903 when he began to publish articles advocating a Jewish State in Palestine and denouncing the theory of assimilation.
In addition to helping organize Zionist societies in Russia, he also undertook a tour of the largest European cities in order to make political connections which would strengthen the Zionist movement and enable it to attain its ends. From 1905 to 1907 Jabotinsky was a member of the Russian Duma to which he was elected as a Zionist. The outbreak of the World War found him in Egypt where in March 1915 he organized the Zion Mule Corps which, distinguished itself in the battle of Gallipoli.
In 1916 he formed the Jewish Legion out of which two Jewish battalions sprung. As a part of the British army Jabotinsky and his Jewish battalions fought the Turks in Palestine. After the British conquest of the country he remained in Palestine for many years.
When the first Arab attacks on the Jews broke out in 1920, Jabotinsky organized a Jewish self-defence corps. For this he was arrested and sentenced by a court martial to fifteen years in prison. As a result of widespread protests this sentence was commuted to one year. When Sir Herbert Samuel became High Commissioner it was annulled entirely.
In recent years he has been a sharp and repeated critic of the Weizmann regime in the World Zionist Organization. This year he was refused a visa to return to Palestine by the government.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
