Jews in Palestine At Time Of WWI and Ottoman Empire Part 2

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

 At the time of WWI, the Russian Empire was a vast territory stretching from Central Europe to the Pacific, including present-day Finland, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, and parts of the Caucasus and Central Asia. It bordered the German and Austro-Hungarian empires to the west and the Ottoman Empire and Persia to the south, with access to the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea.  Most Jews came from here who managed to get to Palestine.   Many had arrived in the first Aliyah of Jews in 1881.                                                     

                Expulsion of Jews in Kiev (1881)

They came after widespread pogroms in the Russian Empire, known as the "Kiev Pogrom" (1881). The direct trigger for the pogrom in Kiev, as in other places, was the assassination of Tsar Alexander II on 1 March (13 March) 1881, for which the instigators blamed the Russian Jews.  

The First Aliyah to Palestine came primarily from Eastern Europe, especially the Russian Empire, following pogroms in 1881-1882. A smaller number of immigrants also came from Yemen during this period.  Between 25,000 and 35,000 Jews came to Palestine during the First Aliyah (1882–1903). The primary motivation was to escape antisemitic violence in Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia, and to build a new Jewish community.   

                                       Yemenite Jew  1914

People of the Second Aliyah, which took place between (1904 and 1914), also came to Palestine primarily from the Russian Empire, with a smaller number from Yemen and other parts of Eastern Europe like Romania.  The Ottoman Empire took Palestine from the Mamluk Sultanate in 1516 and ruled it until the end of World War I in 1918.

                                      USA soldier in WWI

 They lost it by choosing the wrong side to fight on in WWI;  the German    side.  Besides the Germans, the Ottoman Empire was allied with Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria as part of the Central Powers in World War I. These three empires, along with Germany, fought against the Allied Powers, which included Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the United States.                             

                 3 Jewish Romanians in WWI fighting the Austrians.  

The immigration was driven by factors such as antisemitism and pogroms in Czarist Russia, as well as economic hardship, leading over 35,000 Jews to immigrate to Ottoman Palestine. 

                             Mandatory Palestine 1914-1918

They were there during WWI from ( July 28, 1914 to November 11, 1918.) Approximately 94,000 Jews lived in Palestine in 1914, decreasing to about 60,000 in 1918 due to World War I., with the decline attributed to the impact of World War I on the population. The Jewish population declined in Palestine during WWI due to Ottoman-imposed deportations, expulsions, and a ban on immigration, which were driven by fears that Jews were a threat to the war effort and loyal to the enemy. The conflict also caused a severe economic crisis, famine, and epidemics, and cut off essential financial aid from the diaspora, which further impacted the community. 

 After WWI ended, the Kiev Pogroms of 1919 took place that were splurges of looting, raping, and murder chiefly directed against the shops, factories, homes, and persons of the Jews. Ukraine had the largest concentration of Jews in Russia (part of the Russian organized Pale of Settlement- The territory included large parts or all of modern-day Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, and Poland, as well as the Crimea Peninsula and some parts of western Russia. at the time and was also the scene of the bitterest and most prolonged fighting involving both Jews and non-Jews. 

During WWI, Palestinian Jews who served in the British army were part of the Zion Mule Corps and the 1st Jewish Regiment (or Jewish Legion), which were established by the British to fight the Ottomans. The idea for these units was fueled by the British takeover of Palestine and the hope that a Jewish military force could help liberate the land. 

• Formation: The Zion Mule Corps was formed in 1915, followed by the more significant Jewish Legion in 1918. Volunteers came from the Jewish population in the region, including those who had been expelled or fled the fighting.                                           
  
   
   Jewish Legion on Camels in Egypt ready to fight.  
  
  
• Vladimir Jabotinsky and Joseph Trumpeldor were instrumental in advocating for the formation of the Jewish Legion, which began to form in 1918.  The Jewish Legion's primary World War I dates were 1917–1919, when it existed as the 38th, 39th, and 40th battalions of the Royal Fusiliers. The units were officially formed in late 1917, with the 38th Battalion marching in London in February 1918, and most volunteers saw action in Palestine in 1918. 
  
  
  
•  Joseph Vladimirovich (Volfovich) Trumpeldor ; (November 21, 1880 – March 1, 1920) was a Russian Zionist activist who helped organize the Zion Mule Corps and bring Jewish immigrants to Palestine. He was killed while defending the settlement of Tel Hai in 1920 and subsequently became a Jewish national hero. According to a standard account, his last words were "It's nothing, it is good to die for our country." 
• Joseph Trumpeldor was born in Pyatigorsk in the Caucasus to Vladimir Wolf (Ze'ev). Wolf was born in the city of Parczew in Congress Poland, the son of Shmuel Asher, a rabbi. At the age of 13, Wolf was kidnapped as a Cantonist and forced into service in the Russian Imperial Army, where he served for many years as a combat medic. His surname, "Trumpeldor", was likely given to him by his military officers in an effort to distance him from his Jewish religion. Despite his difficult experiences, Wolf did not assimilate, unlike many other Cantonists.
  

Vladimir Jabotinsky (born 1880, Odessa, Russian Empire [now in Ukraine]—died August 3, 1940, near Hunter, N.Y., U.S.) was a Zionist leader, journalist, orator, and man of letters who founded the militant Zionist Revisionist movement that played an important role in the establishment of the State of Israel.

During World War I, he was convinced that the Ottoman Empire, then the ruling power in Palestine, would fall and that in this vacuum the Jews could colonize Palestine if they had demonstrated service to the Allies. He thus convinced the British government to allow military participation by Jewish refugees from the Ottoman Empire.