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1880 October 5, - 1939 VLADIMIR JABOTINSKY (Odessa,Ukraine-Eretz Israel)
Founder of the New Zionist Organization (1935), the Haganah (1920), the Jewish Legion (1917), Betar (Brit Trumpeldor) (1923), Revisionist Party (1925), and the Irgun (1937). Until he joined the World Zionist Organization, Jabotinsky was considered by Tolstoy and Pushkin to be one of Russia's most promising writers. He was soon recognized as a distinguished statesman, linguist (he wrote in over seven languages, translating Poe and Dante into Hebrew) and orator par excellence. In 1935 he split with the World Zionist Organization, accusing them of procrastinating and developing defeatist policies. He believed in 90% immigration and 10% politics, as well as the use of Hebrew only as a state language (the Establishment considered him unrealistic). In the 1930's he organized an aviation and navy school in Europe, while at the same time calling for the complete evacuation of Eastern Europe. One of the last of the hundreds of pamphlets he wrote was entitled The Eleventh Hour (1939) and it called for the immediate resettlement of 600,000 Polish Jews. He was branded an alarmist. He died of a heart attack while visiting Camp Betar in Hunter, New York.
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