Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Jabotinsky: A Life (Jewish Lives), by Hillel Halkin. 2014

Pogroms–Jews Against Jews. Insights into Jabotinsky, the Betar, and Revisionist Zionism

In history books, we hear a lot about pogroms. How about some attention to another kind of pogrom–that of Jew against Jew. This book does so.

A SAMPLE OF JEW ON JEW VIOLENCE IN POLAND

The division between the different factions of Zionism led to bitter conflict. Halkin comments, notably among the Jews of Poland. Halkin comments, (quote) Groups of demonstrators interrupted and heckled both men. Violent brawls were frequent. In Warsaw, Ben-Gurion was attacked with Revisionist stink bombs and bricks; in Brisk, Jabotinsky was stoned by a Labor Zionist mob. The level of invective was fierce. Jabotinsky called the Zionist Left “lackeys of Moscow”. Ben Gurion referred to him as “Vladimir Hitler”, an epithet given resonance by the brown-shirted squadrons of Betarniks who accompanied him everywhere. (It was actually pure coincidence that both Betar and the Nazis wore brown for their marching colors, which had been chosen for the Betar uniform long before Hitler’s rise.) Nor did it help that Achimeir and HAZIT HA’AM, in which Jabotinsky frequently published, praised the Nazis for their anti-Bolshevism and cult of the leader while condemning only their anti-Semitism. Jabotinsky was irate over this. (unquote)(p. 181).

A SAMPLE OF JEW ON JEW VIOLENCE IN ERETZ ISRAEL

Violent conflict also was notable between the different factions of Zionism in Palestine, and this was further aggravated by the mysterious murder of Chaim Arlosoroff. Halkin writes, (quote) Moreover, Achimeir and HAZIT HA’AM had repeatedly defended the use of violence against the Left; the former had even published, that same year, a tract justifying political assassination. The Revisionists were still smarting from an assault by Mapai toughs on a march of theirs in Tel Aviv several weeks earlier. (unquote)(p. 181).