Jabotinsky Vladimir Ze’Ev U Basic Furniture and Electrical Appliances
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SEGULA | July 2017 FOR OUR 38 Tammuz 5777 BOYS! 3330 from Exodus July Tammuz 5777 2017 3330 from Exodus Issue 38 NIS 39 | LOST IN EILAT SEGULATHE jeWISH JOURNEY THROUGH HISTORY mystery of FLYING FORWARD! In memory of Major Yochai (Juha) Kalangel the missing Yemenite Our mission: manuscripts 1 Providing soldiers from difficult socio- economic backgrounds with: u Food coupons and donations Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky | Rabbi Zadoc Kahn | Judean Balsam | Port of Eilat u Basic furniture and electrical appliances 2 Adopting “lone soldiers” for the duration of their service, providing treats and emotional support ZADOC 3 Purchasing thermals and sportswear for combat soldiers KAHN the rabbi Keeping Yochai’s who fought torch of kindness burning bright for Dreyfus Registered Charity Bank details: 580605251 Bank Pagi (52), BALSAM Kanfei Nesharim, the Dead Sea’s To donate, contact us: Jerusalem (182) By phone/text-message spice of life at: 00972-55-662-3855 Account number: [email protected] 742112 Follow us on Facebook ZE’EV VLADIMIR עוף קדימה * Sponsored by This Day in Jewish History and Mitchell Levin JABOTINSKYZionist in exile Contents Issue 38 14 Lonely Man of Honor Was it the poet’s soul, the journalist’s independent mind, or the soldier’s uniform that made Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky an outsider among Zionist leaders? The man who created the Jewish Legion led his Revisionists constantly upstream, against the Labor Zionists, the British, and the establishment in general // Yemima Hovav 40 Witness for the Defense Rabbi Zadoc Kahn’s very name meant justice – for Jewish refugees seeking shelter in France; for his friend Alfred Dreyfus, falsely accused of selling secrets to Germany; and, as a Zionist, for the Jewish people. Though his elders sometimes frowned on his activism, France’s youngest-ever chief rabbi was a credit to his country as well as his community //Tamar Hayardeni At a Glance Why were these twigs worth their weight 48 Balsam Wars Herod, Cleopatra, and Mark Antony vied for it, in gold? Answer on p. 51 enormous sums were paid for it, and its curative properties and heady scent made it sought-after all over the ancient world. Second Temple Judea’s secret treasure was nothing more than a desert shrub, but throughout the Roman Empire, balsam oil was all the rage // Geoffrey Curer Columns Critics 6 Snapshots 60 Elka Weber discovers the darker side of 11 History Repeats growing up on a kibbutz. Henry Goldblum 12 wonders why Christians are more interested than This Month in History Jews in the Babatha archive 64 History Live 69 Tale of a Trail Cover: Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky, poet, soldier, and statesman 74 Photo: Israel Government Press Office Portrait of a People 75 What’s Next 4 July 2017 www.segulamag.com July 2017 // Tammuz 5777 Jabotinsky 14 Russia, Italy, France, Mandate Palestine 40 Rabbi Zadoc Kahn Balsam France Judea 48 74 Critics 60 Portrait Israel of a People France Tale of a Trail 69 Israel 48 69 14 40 60 74 30BCE 0CE 1800 1900 2000 Death Damascus WWI WWII Six-Day of Herod Affair War Also available in Hebrew Editorial: Subscriptions and Subscribe now! Customer Service: Tel. +972-2-500-4351 *Buy someone you love [email protected] [email protected] a gift subscription Advertising: www.segulamag.com Ohad Yazdi www.tmags.co.il [email protected] [email protected] www.segulamag.com The Jewish Journey through History Tammuz 5777 5 What’s Next A glimpse of our next issue SPECIAL JERUSALEM ISSUE! Jerusalem of Old Midway between two anniversaries – fifty years since the reunification of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War, and the centennial of General Allenby’s conquest of the city from the Ottomans at the end of 1917 – Segula celebrates with a special issue devoted to the Holy City. In the years when Jerusalem was divided, Jews yearned for their capital’s beating heart: the Old City. So this issue will focus on that part of Jerusalem – its history, the newly declassified government protocols discussing the Old City during the tense days of June 1967, and the battle that made it part of the state at last. “One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present” Golda Meir ANSWER OUR QUIZ QUESTION AND WIN A FREE ISSUE! Segula – The Jewish Journey through History GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS NOW AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE www.segulamag.com +972-2-500-4351 [email protected] FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK! RY NEY THROUGH HISTO SEGULATHE jeWISH JOUR History Live Interviews with people who’ve made history Struggling for Mutual Respect Rachel Levmore’s belief in the fairness and flexibility of Jewish tradition permeates her efforts to promote solutions for women whose husbands refuse to grant them a divorce // Tal Noiman Q What are your family’s my grandfather had sent to the roots? community he was to lead in We’re descended from several America. He told them he would rabbinic figures, including be their rabbi only for a few years, the great Bible and Talmud as he was planning to move to the commentator Rashi (Rabbi Holy Land. That letter resolved my Solomon Itzhaki) and emotional conflict. Rachel Levmore Maharam Padua (Rabbi Meir My grandmother Yehudis and Rabbinical court advocate, member of Katzenellenbogen of Italy, 1482– her bar-mitzva-age son, Aryeh Israel’s governmental Rabbinic Judicial 1565). The latter authored a well- Leib, were also killed in the Appointments Committee known volume of responsa and Holocaust. 1954 Born in New York was the first to insist that child My mother, Mina Rosen, ran welfare be the deciding factor in away with one of her sisters and 1975 BSc. in chemistry from Brooklyn awarding custody. Other famous managed to survive. They fled College, New York ancestors of mine are Rabbi Judah from place to place, crossing Loew of Prague (Maharal) and borders in conditions we can’t 1976 Immigrated to Israel with her Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller, begin to imagine. From Vienna, family who wrote the Tosfot Yom Tov they got to Belgium, then to commentary on the Mishna. France, Portugal, Jamaica, and 1995 Graduated from Ohr Torah– My maternal grandfather was Cuba before finally arriving in Stone’s School for Women Rabbinical Court Advocates Rabbi Mordechai Rosen, head America. Two other sisters were of the rabbinic court in Vienna saved, ending up in Tel Aviv, and 1995–2000 Doctorate from Bar-Ilan and descended from a dynasty in 1949 my mother came to visit University of rabbinic judges. As a leading them, meeting my father, Chaim rabbinic judge within Agudath Simcha Picker, at a Viennese // Activist on behalf of women trapped Israel and rabbi of the Emes Ve- immigrants’ event. in marriages by Jewish law shalom Synagogue, he was one of My father immigrated from the first Viennese Jews murdered Vienna to Mandate Palestine // Co-authored the prenuptial by the Nazis. He’d planned to in 1934. Most of his siblings Agreement for Mutual Respect emigrate to the United States and survived the Holocaust, apart already had visas and ship tickets from his youngest sister, a medical 2000–2010 Worked in the Israeli rabbinic courts’ “chained wives” for his family. Given the danger of student. She was on her way to (agunot) unit remaining in Vienna, he allowed Palestine when her Youth Aliya others to embark on the Sabbath, ship was captured by the Nazis in // Directs Young Israel and Jewish yet he himself didn’t. Yugoslavia. That’s where she was Agency project to prevent agunot and I never understood why he murdered. Her name was Rachel, get (bill of divorce) refusal didn’t come to Palestine, until and I’m named after her. just a few years ago when my Life was very difficult in Israel // Mother of seven and grandmother uncle gave me a copy of a letter when my parents got married. of nine 64 July 2017 www.segulamag.com History Live Interviews with people who’ve made history They opened a laundromat, but course. Upon receiving the parcel, a tremendous achievement the it was ahead of its time and the camp commander looked all Rabbinical Council of America’s failed. When my mother became over for a child named Shalom prenuptial agreement was. Every pregnant with me, she was afraid Picker, until the package was couple married by the RCA must to stay here, preferring America’s claimed by a bearded old man – sign a prenuptial agreement in more advanced medical system. my grandfather. From then on, he order to prevent get refusal. So they left before I was born. became the camp shohet. I thought to myself: why is On my mother’s side, my there no such standard procedure Q An interesting family story? grandfather’s mother, Henya here in Israel? Prof. Ariel Zvi My paternal grandparents, Shalom Yuta Hindeh, was apparently Rosen had in fact produced such and Feige Picker, were held in an exceptional woman. After a contract, commissioned by the Atlit, having arrived in Palestine her husband, a rabbi and dayan NA’AMAT women’s movement, on an illegal immigration ship. (rabbinic judge), died, people but its validity in Jewish law They were caught and deported brought their halakhic questions is questionable. I saw the need to a British detention camp in to her. for an agreement that would be Mauritius. My grandfather, who Twenty years ago, my cousin recognized, like the American was about sixty, wouldn’t eat Mordechai Rosen moved to prenup, by both rabbinic and there, because the food wasn’t Israel. When he introduced secular courts. I already had an kosher.